该研究团队采用了亚毫米干涉测量法，对圆规座星系的活动核进行了细致观测。观测结果显示，在亚秒差距的尺度上，分子气体呈现出了密集的流入现象。然而，研究人员通过计算发现，仅有不到3%的流入物质被黑洞吸积，其余物质则被多相流出物喷射出去，为宿主星系提供了反馈。此外，观测还揭示了一个围绕着流入气体的致密气体盘的存在。这个气体盘具有引力不稳定性，正是这种不稳定性驱使着物质向大约1秒差距的中心区域吸积。
据悉，活跃星系的中心存在着一个超大质量黑洞，它通过吞噬周围星系的物质而不断壮大。然而，以往的观测未能直接解析中心10秒差距范围内的吸积过程，这是由于其涉及的视角大小非常小，给观测带来了极大的困难。
附：英文原文
Title: Supermassive black hole feeding and feedback observed on subparsec scales
Author: Takuma Izumi, Keiichi Wada, Masatoshi Imanishi, Kouichiro Nakanishi, Kotaro Kohno, Yuki Kudoh, Taiki Kawamuro, Shunsuke Baba, Naoki Matsumoto, Yutaka Fujita, Konrad R. W. Tristram
Issue&Volume: 2023-11-03
Abstract: Active galaxies contain a supermassive black hole at their center that grows by accreting matter from the surrounding galaxy. The accretion process in about the central 10 parsecs has not been directly resolved in previous observations because of the small apparent angular sizes involved. We observed the active nucleus of the Circinus Galaxy using submillimeter interferometry. A dense inflow of molecular gas was evident on subparsec scales. We calculated that less than 3% of this inflow is accreted by the black hole, with the rest being ejected by multiphase outflows, providing feedback to the host galaxy. Our observations also reveal a dense gas disk surrounding the inflow that is gravitationally unstable, which drives the accretion into about the central 1 parsec.
DOI: adf0569
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf0569