Galaxy M87 with Supermassive Black Hole and Giant Plasma Jet 

I am going to cite recent reports and evidence that sheds new wavelengths of light on the supermassive black holes that have been found in the center of galaxies and on the giant jets of particles that are exploding out of them. The evidence is based on images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (VLA) and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescopes, and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory that was launched in 1999.

 First, as orientation for this data, I will introduce Galaxy M87 historically and visually, because this is where the eyes of science have penetrated most deeply into the nuclear core of the galaxy. In 1781 astronomer Charles Messier catalogued a cluster of nebulae in the constellation Virgo, thereby identifying galaxy M87, though it wasn’t until the 1920s that Messier’s nebulae were finally recognized to be galaxies. The Virgo cluster is now known to contain thousands of galaxies and is the closest cluster to our Milky Way’s local group of galaxies, which is on the outskirts of the Virgo cluster. M87 is a large elliptical galaxy located in the center of Virgo cluster, about 50 million light-years away from Earth. The image at right shows M87 within the Virgo cluster of galaxies.

In 1918, M87 was discovered to have a curious straight ray that extended from its center to beyond the visible outer edge of the galaxy, which was the first sighting of the “giant cosmic jet” which is one of the reasons M87 has been an object of intense scientific interest over the years. M87 is located at the very center of Virgo cluster, is the largest and brightest galaxy in the cluster and is the brightest radio source in the cluster region. The HST optical-wavelength image at right shows galaxy M87 with its jet extending from the brilliant nuclear core of the galaxy to beyond its outermost visible edge. Comparing galaxy sizes has helped me to appreciate the astronomical enormity of this jet. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy that has between 150 to 200 globular clusters of stars in its halo region. M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy with modern estimates of up to 15,000 globular clusters of stars in its halo, up from an estimate of 4,000 clusters in 1976. The globular clusters, which each contains from thousands to a million stars, appear only as a haze in this HST image. The jet at optical wavelengths has been estimated to be between 5,000 and 8,000 light-years long, but as we will see, this optical jet is only the beginning of an astounding erupting structure.

Painting a Picture in Particle Paint

 In each of the press reports to follow, I will first summarize the information in the press release, then I will describe the significance of this data from an ongoing Big-Bang perspective. 

May 25, 1994 Space Telescope Science Institute News Release No. STScI–1994-23: Hubble Confirms Existence of Massive Black Hole at Heart of Active Galaxy (Ford et al., 1994). This press release reported that astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope found conclusive evidence for a black hole in the center of galaxy M87 (HST Images at right). The discovery was based on velocity measurements of a disk of hot ionized gas orbiting around the black hole. Precise measurement of the mass of the object that is making the gaseous disk spin showed that the black hole weighs as much as 3 billion suns, but is concentrated into a space no larger than our solar system. The massive black hole was thought to be the engine generating the enormous energies that power the jet, that extends from the black hole in the center to beyond the outer edge of the visible galaxy. The cloud of hot gas in the disk was reported to be composed mostly of ionized hydrogen. HST spectrograph measurements showed that the disk was rotating so rapidly that it contains a massive black hole at its hub. The press release stated that it was clear that the region contains only a fraction of the number of stars that would be necessary to create such a powerful attraction, concluding that there must be something else there that cannot be seen.  

Although the source of the enormous power that generates the jets coming from black holes has been somewhat of a mystery, most scientists today attribute the explosive power to release of energy from gas and matter falling into the black hole. My interpretation of this data and the data to follow is that there is an ongoing Big-Bang inside the supermassive density of the black hole that is the “engine” causing the explosive outburst of these jets, and that the substance of the jets and the massive swirling disk of hot ionized hydrogen gas were materialized by this ongoing Big-Bang process.

In the center of that disk is a bright burning inferno! And in the center of that burning inferno is a supermassive black hole! Now how can a “black hole” burn ferociously? I think what we are looking at is the quasar, and the reason the quasar is burning more brilliantly than 100 billion stars is because it is an ongoing Big-Bang inferno of baryonogenesis. The Quasar, that burning orb in the center of the galaxy, is both Father of the Galaxy and Mother of the Stars, jettisoning and seeding the substance and fuel of optical galaxy evolution and materializing all that is in it! 

Careful scientific observations of galaxies and quasars through optical and X-ray and radio telescopes, observations at different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, have led science to the realization that there is a supermassive black hole in the center of all large galaxies. The evidence for the presence of these supermassive black holes is based on the enormous orbital velocity of stars and gas clouds near the black hole and the presence of optical jets and radio jets exploding outward from quasars and from the active galactic nuclei of many galaxies. X-ray and radio telescope observations have shown that astronomical amounts of energy are being produced by quasars and the nuclear centers of galaxies, but the nature and magnitude of this energy varies considerably. Quasars are said to radiate as much energy per second as a thousand galaxies from a region that has a diameter about one millionth the size of the host galaxy. Galaxies that have an active nuclear center that produces an energy output equivalent to the entire galaxy within which it is contained have been designated as active galaxies or Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), and AGNs comprise a small percentage of all galaxies. Until recently, the supermassive black holes in the remainder of the galaxies have been thought of as quiescent, because relative to quasars and AGNs the energy output from their nuclear center is much feebler. I was surprised to learn that galaxy M87, like most large elliptical galaxies, was considered to be a quiet, non-active galaxy.  

April 13, 1999 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Press Release: Astronomers Detect Activity From “Quiet” Supermassive Black Holes (Di Matteo and Allen, 1999) announced that astronomers had detected “activity from ‘quiet’ supermassive black holes” at the center of six large elliptical galaxies. A unique type of X-ray light, energetic X-ray light with shorter wavelengths, was observed emitting from the nuclear black-hole center of these elliptical galaxies, including galaxy M87 in the Virgo cluster (HST Optical Image and X-ray Light graph of Galaxy M87 at right).  This X-ray light was relatively more energetic compared to light associated with very luminous black holes in AGNs and quasars, albeit in smaller quantities. The astrophysicists found that giant black holes manifest themselves by radiating very energetic X-ray light. They also found that the brilliant jet of high-speed electrons, which they believe to be produced by the black hole engine, is also emitting X-ray light from the brightest spot in the jet. This press release announced that these new results add credence to the ubiquity of supermassive black holes, stating they are likely to exist in the cores of all galaxies. It was predicted that this unique X-ray light may provide clues to the origin of the universe’s unexplained X-ray background radiation.  

As we will see in the pages ahead, from Chandra X-ray Observatory evidence (January 13, 2000: Chandra Resolves Cosmic X-ray Glow), their prediction was straight on target. But first we are going to take a much closer look at this jet and black hole through the eyes of the VLA and VLBA radio telescope. Before zooming in, however, take one last look at the enormous magnitude of this optical jet, the astronomical magnitude of which can easily be appreciated on this HST image because the globular clusters containing thousands of stars can be see as tiny dots beside the jet that extends beyond the outer edge of the galaxy.  

Galaxy M87 is the strongest emitter of radio waves in the Virgo cluster, and its radio emission has been studied since it was first observed in 1948. Radio astronomy was also responsible for the discovery of quasars in the 1950’s, as quasi-stellar radio sources. During 1999, radio astronomy brought us right to the very door of the Black Hole and—Surprise!—Surprise!—Surprise!—found subatomic particles and energy jettisoning out of it and flooding galactic and intergalactic space galore, or so it clearly seemed to me as I viewed the photos and findings of the following two press releases.

October 27, 1999 Space Telescope Science Institute Press Release No. STScI-PR99-43: VLBA Reveals Formation Region of Giant Cosmic Jet Near Black Hole (Biretta et al., 1999). This scientific study reported that astronomers used radio telescopes in Europe and the U.S., including the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to make the most detailed images ever of the center of galaxy M87, “where a powerful stream of subatomic particles spewing outward at nearly the speed of light is formed into a beam, or jet, that then goes nearly straight for thousands of light-years.”  

The press release caption for the composite image above shows a close-up look at M87’s jet near the black hole. TOP LEFT is a radio image of galaxy M87 taken with the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in February 1989, and shows the giant bubble-like structures where radio emission is thought to be powered by the jets of subatomic particles coming from the galaxy’s central black hole. TOP RIGHT is a visible light image of galaxy M87 taken with NASA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in February 1998, and reveals a brilliant jet of high-speed electrons emitted from the nucleus. The jet was said to be produced by the 3-billion-solar-mass black hole. AT BOTTOM is a Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio image of the region close to the black hole, where the extragalactic jet is formed into a narrow beam by magnetic fields. The dark region in the center is about 1/10 light-year across.

HST image (upper right) corresponds to the HST images in the previous references. The composite shows how the images correspond to each other. The small box in the VLA radio image (upper left) shows how the radio jet corresponds to the optical jet (upper right), two views of the same jet at different wavelengths. The VLA image also shows how the radio emission extends far outside the visible galaxy. The VLBA radio image (bottom) corresponds to the brilliant nuclear center of the galaxy in the HST image.

Referring to the VLBA image, the press release reports that this is the first time anyone has seen the region in which a cosmic jet is formed into a narrow beam, that M87’s jet is formed within a few tenths of a light-year of the galaxy’s core, that the 60-degree angle of the inner part of M87’s jet is the widest such angle yet seen in any jet in the universe. In the formation region, the jet was seen opening widely, at an angle of about 60 degrees, nearest the black hole, but is squeezed down to only 6 degrees a few light-years away. Radio observations with the VLBA and optical observations with the HST have measured motions of concentrations of material in M87’s jet and have shown the material to be moving at apparent speeds greater than that of light. The “superluminal” motion was thought to be a geometric illusion created by material moving near, but under, the speed of light, but in a direction somewhat toward the Earth. 

January 7, 1999 National Radio Astronomy Observatory Press Release: Astronomers Discover Spectacular Structure in Distant Galaxy (Owen et al. 1999).  The NRAO reported that researchers using the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope imaged a spectacular and complex structure in galaxy M87 which resolves a decades-old observational mystery and revises current theories about the origin of X-ray emission coming from gas surrounding the galaxy.

This composite shows radio images of M87 at vastly different size scales, obtained by using the VLA at the various radio wavelengths indicated on each image. The larger the wavelength, the larger the structure. VLA-90 cm (center) shows the full extent of the radio source. The large-scale “radio halo” (the structure indicated by lines in the center of the large plumes and cloud) is over 200,000 light-years wide. VLA-20 cm (upper left) shows the “inner lobes and jet”. VLA-2 cm (upper right) shows “the jet.” You can see that the upper left image corresponds to the upper left radio image in the previous report, the inner lobes of which extended beyond the HST visible galaxy. The lines in the composite show that the “inner lobes and jet” (upper left) lie deep within the small central region of the “radio halo” (center). The caption said that the “radio halo” covers an area larger than the optical galaxy, and is a study of the inner region of the Virgo cluster. One can also see that the radio jet (upper right) corresponds to the HST optical jet in the previous report. VLBI-1.3 cm (lower left) shows the innermost features of the jet which measures about 1/3 of a light-year wide, about 100 times the size of the black hole which drives the system. The mystery solved is the source of the large-scale structure of the radio halo, which they believe is being powered by the black hole at the galaxy’s center. The “radio halo” (center) is described as a bubble with a well-defined outer edge. The two large, bubble-like lobes emitting radio waves are more than 200,000 light-years across. The bright plumes emanating from the inner lobes indicated to the radio astronomers that the halo is still “alive”, being supplied with energy from the black hole. Their interpretation is that the radio-emitting material is flowing outward from the galaxy’s core into these large, bright, radio-emitting bubbles, and the lobes appear to be powered by gravitational energy released from the black hole at the galaxy’s center. The report states that galaxy M87 and its radio halo sit in a large atmosphere of hot, X-ray loud gas, and that the bubbles of the halo are sitting inside a region known to be emitting X-rays. What the researchers know about radio jets suggested to them that the energy being pumped into this radio region from the galaxy’s central black hole exceeds the energy being lost in the X-ray emission. As the system is more like a heating flow than a cooling flow, it was concluded that scientists are going to have to revise their ideas about the physics of what’s going on in regions like this.  

Every time the astrophysicists slice the galaxy and universe into different wavelengths of thickness with the Cosmic Microtome of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, which is what they do every time they launch a new telescope, we see an entirely different picture, an entirely different magnitude of physical structure. What those radio astronomers have done with their VLA and VLBA radio telescopes is serially slice the radio structure of galaxy M87 on the inside-outside axis of the 4^th spatial dimension and arrayed its magnificent structure in images that can be comprehended by the eyes of all mankind. Looking at this beautiful array of images, any pathologist, any hematologist, any microscopist in the world can see the spatial dimension of depth in this structure immediately, even though the size and spatial extent of the structure spans thousands of light-years rather than millimeters, microns and angstroms. The radio astronomers have dissected and serially sectioned the composite radio structure of the galaxy (gross anatomical structure) into its smaller and smaller component structural magnitudes and parts (akin to dissecting and slicing microscopic and electron microscopic sections of structural magnitude) from which the composite whole is made. And those astrophysicists have traced the origin and evolution of that “alive” structure, that exploding and expanding fountain of radio-emitting mass, to the very source of its explosive beginning: the supermassive “black hole” in the center of the galaxy!

These radio astronomers have rung a bell that should be heard through all the Halls of Science throughout the world. This is a—Wakeup—bell! The whole physics of that region needs to be reworked.

Look at that Black Hole. Burning more brilliantly than a hundred million stars! That is not just a Black Hole! That is a White Hole! That is both a Black Hole and a White Hole. Gravitationally, a Black Hole. Explosively, a White Hole. The process that formed that supermassive black hole, and the process that has held that supermassive black hole in equilibrium for eons of galaxy time, is the very same process that forms and ignites and maintains the stars: Gravity Implosion—Energy Explosion! Equal and opposite forces in equilibrium—but 3 billion times more gravitationally dense and 3 billion times more explosive than the stars, because that particle jet exploding out of that black hole is rocketing straight-up against a force of gravity equivalent to—3 billion solar masses! Only after shooting straight-up for thousands of light years does the propulsion power of that jet finally diminish sufficiently for its particle mass to be caught by the gravitational force of that supermassive density at galaxy center, where the inner limb appears to turn and orbit as it continues to gush into intra- and extragalactic space in an astronomically widening cloud of particulate mass and energy.  

That radio structure of galaxy M87, which looks like a Genie expanding out of Aladdin’s Magic Lamp, is not a computer simulation. We are looking at radio photographs of the nuclear center of the galaxy, and it is exploding out of a furiously burning black hole and expanding through outer galactic space right in front of our eyes!

What everyone is calling a “black hole” is a burning—ORB—equivalent to 3 billion solar masses!

As clearly as we see the Sun in the Sky, we are looking at the Big Bang and the supermassive burning DENSITY in which it happens!

Why is it that someone who spent his life looking through a microscope can see this, but those who look through a telescope for a living, and who know infinitely more about astrophysics than I ever will, don’t see it? I think the reason this has not been realized is because astrophysicists are locked in frame of reference to the Space-Time Model of the Universe. As helpful as those coordinates have been, this frame of reference has created an illusionary physical universe that leaves us blind at two impassible points, at two Points of Singularity that are physical impossibilities: 1) a Physical Universe that physically began from a Point of Singularity; 2) Black Holes that physically end at a Point of Singularity.

This Point-of-Singularity confusion has resulted in an enormous illusion that is disorienting the entire scientific world, which in turn is hampering the eyesight and insight of the most powerful minds on our planet, who with exceptionally good intelligence and perfectly good vision are looking at this universe through eyes that have been focused and refracted by an erroneous conclusion: namely, that the entire elemental atomic mass of the physical universe, including all of the hydrogen atoms that constitute 70% of the atomic universe, are believed to have been created en masse 20 billion years ago by a single fait accompli Big-Bang event. This misconception, that the entire physical universe arose from a Point of Singularity that was a single point of infinite density located at a single point in space at a single point in time (single, historical Big Bang) has replicated like a genetic error in the DNA of Perception and Belief that forms the template of mind for every person who dons the cap of graduation to enter the hallowed Halls of Science. As a result, everything in the universe is viewed as the RESULT of a single Big Bang of mythical magnitude, and nothing in the universe is seen as possible contributing factors or CAUSE of the Big Bang. Consequently, when astrophysicists look at the Quasars and at the Active Galactic Nuclei of  “active” galaxies and at Supermassive Black Holes in the center of “inactive” elliptical galaxies like M87, which are the most powerful ongoing explosions in the universe, erupting “Giant Cosmic Plasma Jets” from the most brilliant orbs having the greatest known density of any objects in the universe, the fact that they may be looking directly at the Big-Bang process never crosses their mind. Because everybody knows that the Big Bang occurred all of a sudden one time 10-20 billion years ago, so everybody assumes for a fact that all the hydrogen in the universe was preformed 10-20 billion years ago, long before the galaxies began to appear.

So all the hydrogen ions and hydrogen atoms and hydrogen molecules that are in each galaxy are believed to have been in existence for billions of years before the galaxy even began to form: including the hydrogen ions that form the massive gaseous accretion disks that are swirling around the supermassive black holes in the center of each galaxy, and the subatomic particles of protons and electrons in the plasma jets that are seen exploding out from those black holes all the way through the galaxy and spreading into intergalactic space, and the gigantic intergalactic clouds of atomic hydrogen gas that have been mapped by radio astronomers at 21-centimeter wavelength and by absorption lines of Lyman alpha transition of atomic hydrogen, and the halo of neutral hydrogen gas detected at radio wavelengths that surrounds and extends far beyond the visible optical edge of every galaxy, and the high-velocity clouds of gas that have been observed in the halo of the Milky Way Galaxy coursing through space at mysterious velocity so fast that the clouds of gas are moving independent of the gravitational rotation of the galaxy. All of this hydrogen is believed to have been created by the historical Big Bang. As a result, scientific theory can move the hydrogen around and can change hydrogen from one form to another and can fuse hydrogen into larger atoms in the stars, but the notion of an ongoing Big-Bang flooding the galaxy and vast regions of intergalactic space from a galactic geyser of newly formed radio-emitting hydrogen is as unreal and far fetched as a Genie pouring out of Aladdin’s Magic Lamp.

And almost as far fetched as the entire physical universe exploding and expanding out of a single mathematical Point of Singularity in space no bigger than a…period.

The supermassive black hole creates a seemingly insolvable dilemma for modern day science because it appears to be inaccessible behind the black curtain of the event horizon, but there is another way to approach this “black hole” that will make it reveal its secrets.

Let’s begin with the question of the day.

Where did this supermassive gravitational DENSITY in the center of galaxy M87 come from? The gravitational force exceeds the escape velocity of light, so it is a “black hole.” And it weighs 3 billion solar masses, so it is a “supermassive black hole.” But how was that DENSITY formed and what is that DENSITY made of? The Space-Time Model of the Black Hole, combined with the Space-Time Model of the Big Bang, constrains and limits the range of possible answers to that question because both of these models are locked to a Point of Singularity in Space-Time, locked to a geometrical Point in Space that locks the location and direction of Time that determines the order and sequencing of events. So relative to the physical universe and everything in the universe, the Big Bang must always be in the past, because it was the point of beginning of Space and Time. And relative to the Event Horizon of the Black Hole, everything inside the Black Hole must always be in the future, because the Black Hole ends at a Point of Singularity of Space and Time, a Point in Space toward which Time and the events of time are moving and at which Space and Time end. Although this may seen abstract to some, the mathematical and geometrical formulation of these Space-Time models have enormous practical ramifications that affect the nitty-gritty, day-to-day scientific decipherment of cosmological processes and events, because the direction of “Time” in the space-time Big Bang and Black Hole models determines the direction and order of processes and the spatial location of events. The Black Hole, as originally defined in Space-Time terms, is a unidirectional movement of Time and events toward a Point of Singularity that is the center of the gravitational mass of the black hole, so matter and energy can gravitate into the black hole but nothing can come out of the black hole, because time cannot go backwards. If we remove Time as a controlling factor and simply look at the Black Hole as a gravitational mass in space, we are still situated outside an event horizon that we cannot see into because, by definition, the black hole is black because it doesn’t allow light to escape beyond the event horizon. At the center of galaxy M87, however, we are seeing the strangest thing! We see the gravitational effects of a supermassive gravitational force, but we do not see a black hole. We see a giant burning—ORB—with the most powerful jets in the entire universe exploding out of it!

As I am inclined to do, this has made me wonder and wonder and wonder: Where is that black hole and why can’t we see it? If we can’t see into the black hole then we shouldn’t be able to see through it to the other side either, because it’s not an invisible sphere we can see through, it’s a black hole. So why don’t we see a black object, a black sphere? With all that contrasting light burning so brilliantly around it, why don’t we see a pitch-black ball in the middle of that inferno of energy?

Then, something began to dawn in my mind and give me strange moods. Maybe it’s the way we’re looking at it. Maybe it’s the way we’re looking at everything! And when I feel that way, sometimes I just let things turn upside down and inside out and pretend I am a little child, because children see everything so freshly, like everything in the whole world is wonderful and vivid and new. Maybe the black hole is a strange mirage. Maybe the surface-less surface (event horizon) of the black hole behaves like a mirror and reflects what is around it and that’s why we don’t see a black ball surrounded by brilliant light. Maybe the event horizon of the black hole is a magic invisible mirror that only reflects what we already know, so everything inside it becomes made of what we already know. And what we know is that the Big Bang created everything in the whole wide world, all the Mass and Energy in the whole Universe, so Everything in the Universe has to be Outside the Magic Mirror that is around the Black Hole.

And then I began to wonder about black holes, and why this was a black hole, and why people were calling it a black hole. Gravitational force yes, but why a black hole? Then I started to think about the escape velocity of light, and how this gravitational density was 3 billion times more massive than a black hole that a star makes, and it made the star seem so tiny to me and—Oh My—how insignificant the escape velocity of light seems in comparison to something of such awesome magnitude as this. Then, as these gatherings of thoughts were passing before the eyes of my mind, and as I looked up at the sky and watched the movement of the clouds, like we do sometimes when we’re wondering about all the kinds of things we wonder about in the harbor of our minds, all this mystery around us and in us and everywhere we look, and we just become suspended in the unanswerable sometimes, and just rest in the mystery that surrounds us because our mind gets so tired, and the clouds are moving the way they always do, and why they are so soothing I’ll just never know but always know that there they are to rest my troubled mind. And at times like that I just watch the movements of the clouds. Inside I watch them and outside I watch them and sometimes their beauty even makes me cry. And sometimes the movements take me with them though I know not where…nor how…nor why…and then…it…..happens…..and I…begin to drift…and see…in different ways…..

…..Something rides above the heads—an unbalanced unity which waves and wallows water-like, a vapor in the air we share. And in its subtlety of almost present, it takes sensations too refined for body’s knowledge in disquiet. For of its Nature in the shade of mental light, by its handicap of speech, in its incredible state of disappearance each time the hand extends to touch, like the smoky forms of vapor and mirages that our heart cries into beauty real, it cannot be vanquished into forms that promise the feeling we want to know is ours—by a look or sentence, no, not this frost in motion’s mouth. It is too living for the final, too sentient for our house of time, known only though its vibrant currents within us, Nature’s ever presence, as when orchards from the ground of depth unveil the fragrance of our soul, this universal Soul that is each of us and all, calling us to home by its return and habitation….

…..That One above the head that seeps and sinks down through the tense, down through the vacant brain, down through the heart, and belly, and into the rootlets of our depth; That One that unfurls in the depths of us and rises up through belly, heart, breast, head and out to meet itself in the everywhere space above all crowns; That One known only in stillness is dynamic through in and through out. Movement is its Nature. You have it in the wind, in water currents bends and flow—waves, river, falls, a splash—what light does to clouds at sunset, its moods of midnight and dawn—stabs of stars and the slow sharp eye-prayer of the Sun on the dark edge of horizon conquers all, seasons extremes, birthing beauty dying already in a crime of crimson brilliance. It is dynamic according to its own moods. Don’t try to own It. It is you who are owned. Don’t try to capture it for keeps. Just catch the tide and ride…whenever…wherever…you can.….

Like that it was…in that mood when the child in me knows it is safe to come out…

That’s when I saw IT…..The Clouds....Parted!

Bursting its Beams of Light upon me….

and there IT was…

— O —

Oh, so simply so…

Waiting where It’s always been...

Just waiting for some Child of its Nature to see It...

There is no black hole there. What we see is what it is! Brilliant Burning Orb!

And if there is a God in the Galaxy, There IT IS…Quasar shining on its family of tiny stars.

And if our body is made of atoms that have grown in the Garden of the Sun, There IT IS!

And if the starry sky at night is our family, too. There IT IS…Holding Center for us all.

And if we have a Heart that is made of Golden Light---Here IT IS---Deep inside our Depth!

But, but, I guess I’m starting to slip…in…again…So I’ll stop.

And stay on the line.

Is Galaxy Center a Big Bang or Black Hole?  

Current scientific theories are built on a foundation of belief that the total Mass and Energy in the physical universe is the result of a single Big Bang that occurred 10-20 billion years ago. Current theories that explain how the supermassive black holes and particle jets are formed at galaxy center are based on the Space-Time Model of the Black Hole. The gravitational magnitude of the black hole is determined by direct measurement of its effect on the gaseous accretion disk surrounding it. Knowing the gravitational magnitude of the black hole, the event horizon can be calculated. As nothing can escape from the event horizon of a black hole, it is presumed that the black hole is formed from matter falling into it from the accretion disk and matter in the surrounding visible galaxy, which means from the preexisting mass and energy that was formed by the original Big Bang. It has been theorized that the inward falling matter releases gravitational energy which accounts for the explosive jets moving in the opposite direction from the gravitational force. As for why some of the matter explodes away from the black hole instead of all the matter falling into the black hole remains a mystery.

The Space-Time Model of the Black Hole, like the Big Bang, has only one side to the equation, because the model shows only one side of the process. Whereas the Big Bang is a purely explosion/expansion process, the Black Hole is a purely gravitational collapse/implosion process. Consequently, each of these models has a blind side. In the Big Bang model, we cannot see the process (the physics) that caused the formation of the supermassive density that resulted in the Big Bang. In the Black Hole model, we cannot see the process (the physics) that results beyond the event horizon, inside the supermassive density of the Black Hole. The greatest ongoing explosions in the physical universe are happening in the quasars, AGNs and region of the supermassive black hole at galaxy center. Using the Space-Time Model of the Black Hole, everyone is desperately trying to figure out how an explosion process of this magnitude can occur outside the Event Horizon of the Black Hole.

The answer is, it doesn’t.

As I looked at the explosive region of the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87, in comparison with the globular clusters of stars around it, I was impressed by how brilliantly the region of the black hole appeared to be burning. Then I wondered. What is the difference between a star and a stellar black hole? Certainly the stellar black hole can’t burn brightly like this supermassive black hole is or it would still be a star. We know that a star that is destined to become a black hole has to have a minimum magnitude of 1.7 solar masses in order to become a black hole. And the burning star has the same gravitational magnitude as the black hole it will one day become, albeit that gravitational magnitude is in a larger orb that is less dense. So while the star is burning, its gravitational mass is equivalent to the gravitational mass of a black hole, but the thermonuclear explosion within the star maintains the star’s equilibrium so that it doesn’t collapse upon itself. Then when the star runs out of nuclear fuel, the force of gravity is unopposed and it collapses into a black hole. So the difference between a burning star and a stellar black hole is the thermonuclear explosion that maintains the star’s equilibrium and causes it to burn brightly. 

 Quasars and AGNs and the Supermassive Black Holes in the center of galaxies have been burning brightly for eons of cosmological time, which means they are also in equilibrium. These are the greatest known densities in the physical universe and they are burning—explosively!

Due to the constraints of the original Big Bang theory (all hydrogen in the physical universe is by fait accompli already in existence) and the Space-Time Model of the Black Hole (one-way movement of mass and energy from the preexisting physical universe across the event horizon into the black hole), science has turned a perfectly healthy celestial orb into a schizophrenic! An orb whose gravitational mass and explosive energy are split apart into separate places in space and kept apart by an “event horizon” barrier that nobody can see, including the orb itself. No wonder that supermassive celestial orb is confused. It doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going!

And that’s what it all boils down to: Is the supermassive black hole at the center of every galaxy collapsing or expanding, imploding or exploding, going or coming? Is it a Big Bang or a Black Hole?

The answer is, it is both: Big Bang and Black Hole.

The Space-Time Model of the Black Hole does not describe a celestial mass that is in equilibrium, because it only describes the gravity side of the equation. Explosion is an obvious feature associated with these supermassive black holes: 1) radial explosion accounting for its brilliant radial energy, 2) exploding particle jets. Because the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy has been viewed through the eyes of the Space-Time Black Hole Model, the site of explosion had to be placed outside the mass of the black hole, which means that the site of explosion has been placed outside of the mass that is causing the explosion. It is like striking a match and the flame mysteriously appears in mid-air about a meter away from the match, and the match head isn’t burning, and we keep looking back and forth between the wick-less flame and flame-less match head and trying to figure out what’s going on here.

The reason this enormous mass has been called a supermassive black hole is because it is more dense than any object science has ever encountered before, so the nature of this massive density was quite logically compared to the greatest known density of the time, which was the stellar black hole. However, these supermassive densities—Quasars, AGNs, Supermassive Black Holes—are burning! Therefore, the physics of what is going on inside the supermassive densities can be more clearly deciphered if a burning star is used as the model for what is going on rather than a black hole.

The Gravity Implosion—Energy Explosion Model integrates both sides of the process in any celestial mass, regardless of its magnitude. 

The upper diagram depicts the processes that result in and result from the formation of a celestial orb, which applies to the process that gravitationally forms and results in burning orbs of all magnitude. By plotting the components of the process on the inside-outside axis of the 4^th spatial dimension, both sides of the equilibrium can be visualized and analyzed. Within this frame of reference, each object and wavelength and measure of structural magnitude (Points, Lines and Spheres of Magnitude) in and around the nuclear center of the galaxy (e.g. accretion disk, radio structures, X-ray structures and regions of “dark matter”, etc) can potentially be aligned to correspond to points on the inside-outside axis of this fundamental process (gravitational collapse versus explosion), like pieces of a puzzle, in order to investigate and localize the cause-effect relationship between various specific component parts and the fundamental process as a whole. The event horizon of the gravitational process on the right corresponds to the event horizon of the “black hole” when light is used as the defining parameter. However, in order to expand the utility of the event horizon concept, any range of parameters can be used to define a respective gravitational event horizon beyond which its constituent elements cannot escape, such as hydrogen for stars or quarks for quasars.

The lower diagram is a composite representation of a celestial orb. The diagram is bisected in the middle to compare the Quasar with the Star to show the similarity of their Gravity Implosion—Energy Explosion nature. The Star at left corresponds to a large star that will one day become a stellar black hole; the Quasar at right corresponds to a supermassive black hole at galaxy center. This reflects the gravitational magnitude of each orb in “black hole” terms, at one point in their respective lifecycles. If so desired, a line could be added outside the composite to represent the Event Horizon of the Black Hole that would be in effect if there was no explosion process going on inside the Star and Quasar. However, I want to emphasize the explosion side of the process rather than the gravity side because that is the “new physics” that is going to explain what is going on inside this supermassive celestial orb that fuels its unparalleled brilliance and creates the propulsion power of its jets. The Star at left represents a first-generation star in which hydrogen is the nuclear fuel and helium is the product of nuclear fusion which forms the core of the star. Thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium is depicted as a shell layer between the lighter hydrogen fuel and heavier helium core (Event Horizon of Thermonuclear Explosion). The Quasar at right is a theoretical composite model of the Big-Bang occurring in a supermassive celestial orb, the process and density of which corresponds to the first second in the original Big Bang theory. The Big-Bang fusion of quark-gluon plasma into baryons (Event Horizon of the Big Bang) is depicted as a shell layer between the dense quark-gluon core, which is the particle fuel for baryonogenesis, and the products of baryonogenesis, represented in the diagram as hydrogen. Quarks have greater density than protons of hydrogen nuclei, so the quark-gluon plasma remains at the core and the products of baryonogenesis are exploded outward in Big-Bang model fashion.

Young stars are known to display prominent jets that shoot outward along the axis of the star’s spin, a pattern which is identical to the giant cosmic jets associated with quasars and AGNs and supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies, except the jets associated with stars are astronomically smaller in size. The velocity of jets from stars is typically 100 km/second. In contrast, the velocity of jets from quasars travels close to the speed of light at about 270,000 km/second. (Parenthetically, these gigantic jets have repeatedly and consistently been clocked at superluminal speeds, with measurements up to 6 times faster than the speed of light. Interestingly, despite the consistency of this data, the superluminal speeds have been discounted because it has been decided that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light.) The jets from stars are composed of atomic and molecular gas. The jets from quasars are composed of subatomic particles. Jets from stars only occur while stars are young and still surrounded by the gaseous nebula from which the star was formed. Jets from stars are presumed to be related to accretion processes as the star assembles itself from the original gas cloud. Clearly, the jets from the stars are powered by the thermonuclear explosion process going on inside the star, even though the star itself is for a time buried out of optical sight within the nebula that formed it. The jets from quasars and supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies are thought to be powered by the “supermassive black hole,” although how remains a major mystery.

Shift gears. See the pattern. Expand the spectrum. We are seeing another octave of physical reality!

The composite model of the quasar above, as the site of the ongoing Big-Bang, opens the door to other possibilities for the generation of the giant cosmic plasma jets. First, the explosion process is occurring inside the quasar, inside the supermassive “black hole” density rather than outside the gravitational “event horizon” surrounding the supermassive density. This Big-Bang explosion process is powering both the illumination of the quasar and the giant cosmic plasma jets that are coming from it, in the same way that stellar illumination and the jets from stars are powered by the thermonuclear explosion inside the stars. Secondly, whereas stars are made of hydrogen atoms, quasars are made of quarks and pre-atomic particles. And whereas stars are formed from nebula of hydrogen atoms, quasars may be formed from “Dark Matter” nebula consisting of quarks and other pre- and non-atomic particles that gravitationally result in the formation of the supermassive density that reaches the threshold of the Big-Bang.

The Gravity Implosion—Energy Explosion Model integrates both sides of the process in each of these celestial orbs. Using stellar evolution leading to thermonuclear fusion as a model, quasar evolution leading to thermo-particle fusion (Big-Bang) can be precisely formulated in theoretical terms. Quasar is  formed from and composed of pre- and non-atomic particles within a Pre-Bang supermassive gravitational density. Quark-gluon fusion into the proton nucleus of hydrogen strong-force binds the particles into stable proton condition. This strong-force separation of  particle (proton) and anti-particle (electron) creates an electromagnetic polarity that is the regional origin of electromagnetic force within the universe (in the form of an electron and proton, the subatomic elements of hydrogen). Within the supermassive density of quark-gluon plasma, hydrogen protons and their newly formed “anti-particle” electrons are propelled outward from the supermassive gravitational density conditions within the core of the quasar. At the surface of the quasar, the protons are channeled by gravitational force into orbit as a torus of proton-electron plasma whirling around the equatorial plane of the quasar. Massive electromagnetic force generated by the orbiting torus forms the cosmic plasma jets. Within the supermassive gravitational conditions of the torus orbiting around the equatorial plane of the quasar, accelerated nuclear fusion occurs that gives rise to the regional presence of atoms of higher and higher atomic weight, thereby accounting for the range of atomic elements evident around the quasar.

Is there any evidence for this other than the existence of the giant cosmic plasma jets?

“Dark Matter” is know to exist because its enormous gravitational effects are evident within the visible galaxy and galaxy clusters, which is how “Dark Matter” was discovered in the first place. And there is ten times more “Dark Matter” in the universe than there is visible matter. Spiral and elliptical galaxies lie embedded in large dark-matter halos. Clusters of galaxies lie embedded in even larger systems of dark matter. If this “Dark Matter” is evidence of the Universe of Energy and Particles that preexisted the Atomic-Stellar-Galaxy Universe, which we know has to be there in order for the Big Bang to have occurred in the first place, then the visible physical universe is but the thin outer fringe and skin of a greater Cosmos that is scientifically within our reach, the rest being the buried-from-sight “Dark Matter” that gave rise to the supermassive density of the “Big Bang” that formed the atoms and stars and galaxies.

Nature consistently repeats itself in patterns. And sometimes these patterns span octaves of magnitude, such as the orbital pattern of atoms (electromagnetic) and the orbital pattern of solar systems (gravity). If we can see the whole pattern of Gravity Implosion—Energy Explosion in the visible physical universe, we can extrapolate and apply this pattern to the universe of “Dark Matter” that formed it. It seems to me that the evolution of the stars shows us the entire Gravity Implosion—Energy Explosion pattern. By applying that pattern to the formation of the quasar, we have another way to look at the supermassive black hole and giant cosmic plasma jets and brilliant explosive magnitude we are seeing at galaxy center: On an astronomically larger theoretical scale, “Dark Matter” gathers into a nebula that gives rise to the supermassive black hole of the quasar (hydrogen-producing celestial orb) that gives rise to all the hydrogen in the galaxy. The quasar at galaxy center is surrounded by this nebula of “Dark Matter” that results in the channeling of the cosmic plasma jets by the same process that forms the jets from stars, but on an entirely different scale of magnitude.   

Origin and Evolution of the Universe, a Unified Scientific Theory by Paul Hollister, M.D. Copyright 2004

Home | Table of Contents | Site Guide | Author's Window | The First 100

Author's e-mail address: Hollister@Origin-of-Universe.com

Send mail to webmaster@Origin-of-Universe.com with comments or questions about this web site.

Copyright © 2004 Origin and Evolution of the Universe, a Unified Scientific Theory by Paul Hollister, M.D.