Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GOFAR (Galactic Outflows and Feedback in the Astro-H eR)

Teaser

We are studying winds emanating from galaxies with supermassive black holes in their center.We are trying to understand what launches the winds, where they are in their host galaxy, and what impact they may have on galactic evolution.Astrophysical research is the most...

Summary

We are studying winds emanating from galaxies with supermassive black holes in their center.
We are trying to understand what launches the winds, where they are in their host galaxy, and what impact they may have on galactic evolution.

Astrophysical research is the most fundamental research that has no direct bearing on society.
Indirectly, space research (our main tools are on board satellites) promotes space technology that in turn serves society.


The overall objective of astrophysics is to understand of the universe, and in the context of GOFAR to understand the physics around black holes, and the mechanisms that drive galactic winds.

Work performed

We have been analyzing X-ray satellite observations of active galaxies.
X-ray observations of AGN outflows were studied through spectroscopic observations with ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite.
We carried out a large observing campaign of the active galaxy (AGN) NGC 7469 that included several X-ray satellites as well as ground-based optical and radio monitoring.
We analysed the thermal instability in a well known active galaxy NGC 3783.
We measured for the first time the accretion-disk corona in a high-redshift quasar.

We also used radio telescopes and mm wave observations to detect variability possibly arising from galactic outflows, or from magnetic activity above the accretion disk corona.

Final results

We showed that the magneto-hydrodynamic model that could explain black hole winds from centers of galaxies can also work on smaller, stellar scales.

We detected the wind velocities as well as emission from the starburst ring. A failed nuclear wind was discovered in another active galaxy.
We identified both cold and hot gas emitting X-rays in a radio galaxy 3C 390.3 and reported on the variability of another AGN NGC 5548.
We found evidence in grating spectra for the sub-relativistic outflows

We detected for the first time day-scale variability in the mm-band and used polarization measurements to revise a black hole mass estimate.
We found convincing evidence that the common extinction feature at 217.5 nm is associated with giant PAH molecules.


There is no obvious socio-economic impact to these results.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.technion.ac.il/en/2017/04/black-hole-winds-the-magnetic-hydrodynamic-model/.