Supermassive black hole winds are 100 times more powerful than scientists thought

Supermassive black holes may have a much larger influence on their surroundings than scientists previously realized. New observations suggest that winds driven by these enormous objects can carry energy across roughly 300,000 light-years, reaching far beyond the galaxies that host them.

Researchers found that the energy associated with these winds is about 100 times greater than earlier estimates, revealing that black holes can affect vast regions of space on a truly enormous scale.

"Black holes are largely known for sucking matter in, but they also eject gas in the form of powerful winds," says Satoshi Yamada, Assistant Professor at Tohoku University's Frontier Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS). "These winds were thought to be contained within the galaxy, but our study revealed that the force is immensely more powerful than previously understood."

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