This phenomenon may be quite common.
Mmmm donuts... Although this may not be the confectionary delight we indulge in every once and awhile, anytime I hear the word “donut” I am immediately intrigued.
New research from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton space observatory has revealed that the dust and gas surrounding most massive black holes are “clumpy” rather than smooth as originally thought. In fact, they have been described as thick donut-shaped disks, and they are responsible for “feeding” growing black holes.
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NuSTAR, equipped with X-ray vision, was able to see inside one of the densest donuts, also known as tori, surrounding a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy called NGC 1068, located 47 million light-years away in the Cetus constellation. The observations revealed that this rotating material was not a smooth, rounded donut, but actually a weird, lumpy donut that would never make it to the shelves to be sold.
Donuts surrounding giant black holes were proposed as early as the mid-1980s to explain why some black holes are easily seen, while others are hidden behind gas and dust. It comes down to orientation — if the donut is viewed edge-on, the black hole at its center is obscured, however if the donut is viewed face-on, the black hole is easily detected. This idea is referred to as the unified model because it categorizes many different types of black holes based simply on their orientation.
This is the first time these clumpy chunks have been observed in such a thick tori, and researchers believe this phenomenon may be quite common. “We don't fully understand why some supermassive black holes are so heavily obscured, or why the surrounding material is clumpy,” said co-author Dr Poshak Gandhi of the University of Southampton. “This is a subject of hot research.”
Future research will look into what causes these clumps in the donuts, however a couple theories have already been proposed. The first idea is that a black hole produces turbulence as it devours material, which then seeps outward towards the donut. Second, is that the lumps are from material that falls onto the donut from the outside. This material moves toward the center of the black hole due to its strong gravitational pull, and clumps as it falls.
"We'd like to figure out if the unevenness of the material is being generated from outside the donut, or within it," said Gandhi. This research could lead to improved understanding of the growth of black holes, how they evolve, and subsequently how they affect the galaxies in which they dwell — including our own Milky Way.
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