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- Sep 1, 2010
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Composite image of Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The background image (blue) is from the Hubble Space Telescope. The foreground (red) is ALMA data showing the distribution of CO gas in and around the galaxy. The pull-out box is the ALMA data of the "shadow" (black) produced by absorption of the mm-wavelength light emitted by electrons whizzing around powerful magnetic fields generated by the galaxy's supermassive black hole. The shadow indicates that cold clouds of molecular gas are raining in on the black hole. Each cloud contains as much material as a million Suns and is 10s of ly across.
While ALMA was only able to detect 3 clouds of cold gas near the black hole, the astronomers speculate that there may be 1000s like them in the vicinity, setting up the black hole for a continuing downpour that could fuel its activity well into the future.