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XRISM-Led Campaign Sees Flare Trigger Ultrafast Black Hole Wind for the First Time

A peer-reviewed study reports a 0.2c outflow forming within a day in NGC 3783, pointing to magnetic reconnection as the driver.

Overview

  • The observation captured the onset and evolution of an ultrafast outflow just 12–24 hours after an X-ray flare from the galaxy’s active nucleus.
  • Gas was expelled at about 60,000 kilometers per second, or roughly one-fifth the speed of light.
  • XRISM conducted its longest continuous observation to date over 10 days, coordinated with XMM-Newton and supported by NuSTAR, Hubble, Chandra, Swift, and NICER.
  • Researchers interpret the event as a magnetic reconnection episode analogous to solar flares and coronal mass ejections rather than a purely radiation-driven wind.
  • The black hole in NGC 3783 lies about 130 million light-years away and is roughly 30 million solar masses, with the findings published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on December 9, 2025.