Astronomers have reported that a supermassive black hole at the heart of the spiral galaxy NGC 3783, about 135 million light-years from Earth, has launched record-breaking winds at roughly one-fifth the speed of light following a powerful X-ray flare, according to findings published Dec. 9 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics and summarized by the European Space Agency (ESA). The discovery offers a rare look at how active galactic nuclei may drive fast, energetic outflows that influence the growth and evolution of their host galaxies.


A black hole on a scale “almost too big to imagine”

The black hole in NGC 3783 is estimated to have a mass of about 30 million times that of the sun, placing it firmly in the category of supermassive black holes that sit at the centers of galaxies. Such objects power what astronomers call active galactic nuclei (AGNs), where matter spirals inward through a hot, magnetized accretion disk and can release enormous amounts of energy in the form of light, X-rays, and high-speed winds.

The newly reported observation centers on a bright X-ray flare that was detected from NGC 3783 by ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray telescope and other space-based observatories. As the flare subsided, researchers noticed signatures of extremely fast-moving gas streaming away from the vicinity of the black hole at about 60,000 kilometers per second (around 37,000 miles per second), or roughly 20% of the speed of light.

ESA described the scale of the object as “almost too big to imagine,” emphasizing that despite its vast mass, the black hole itself is invisible; astronomers infer its presence and behavior from the radiation and motion of surrounding material.


How astronomers detected the record-breaking winds

The new results are based primarily on detailed X-ray spectroscopy, a technique that breaks incoming X-ray light into its component energies to identify the chemical elements present and to measure their motion. Shifts in the wavelengths of spectral lines—caused by the Doppler effect—reveal whether gas is moving toward or away from the observer, and at what speed.

According to ESA’s mission update and the peer-reviewed study, the team monitored NGC 3783 during and after the X-ray flare. As the flare faded, they observed absorption features in the X-ray spectra that indicated highly ionized gas moving outward at unprecedented velocities for this object. These features are interpreted as signs of a powerful wind launched from the inner regions of the accretion disk around the black hole.

In an ESA statement, team member and ESA fellow Camille Diez said that understanding the magnetic environment around AGNs is a crucial part of explaining how such winds are generated. “Because they're so influential, knowing more about the magnetism of AGNs, and how they whip up winds such as these, is key to understanding the history of galaxies,” Diez said, according to ESA’s release.

  • Instrument: Primarily ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, with supporting data from other space telescopes.
  • Distance: Roughly 135 million light-years in the constellation Centaurus.
  • Wind speed: About 60,000 km/s, or nearly 0.2 times the speed of light.
  • Publication: Astronomy & Astrophysics, Dec. 9, 2024 (online), according to the study authors and ESA.

What are active galactic nuclei and why do their winds matter?

Active galactic nuclei are regions at the cores of some galaxies where the central supermassive black hole is actively accreting gas and dust. As material falls inward, it heats up, shines across the electromagnetic spectrum, and can produce jets and winds that stream far into interstellar and even intergalactic space. AGNs are thought to play a significant role in galaxy evolution by injecting energy and momentum into their surroundings, a process broadly known as “AGN feedback.”

Many cosmological simulations of galaxy formation include AGN feedback to explain observed properties of galaxies, such as the relationship between a galaxy’s stellar mass and the mass of its central black hole, and the abrupt cutoff in star formation in some massive galaxies. Fast winds—like those reported in NGC 3783—are one way a black hole can influence star-forming gas: by heating or expelling it, the black hole may limit how many new stars the galaxy can form.

Some theories suggest these AGN winds regulate the growth of both the galaxy and its black hole, creating a feedback loop that shapes their shared evolution.

The NGC 3783 results contribute direct observational evidence for such processes by linking a specific flare event in an AGN to a measurable, ultra-fast wind.


Theories on what powers such extreme cosmic winds

Astrophysicists have proposed several mechanisms to explain how black holes can launch fast winds:

  • Radiation pressure: Intense light from the accretion disk can push on gas, driving it outward. Near the Eddington limit—the luminosity where radiation pressure balances gravity—this force can become strong enough to eject material at high speeds.
  • Magnetically driven winds: Magnetic fields anchored in the disk can fling gas outward along field lines, in a process sometimes compared to a rotating sprinkler or a magnetic slingshot.
  • Thermal winds: Extremely hot gas may expand and escape if its thermal energy exceeds the gravitational pull at a given distance from the black hole.

The team studying NGC 3783 emphasizes the role of magnetic fields and the timing of the wind after the X-ray flare. The wind appears to have emerged as the flare subsided, suggesting a link between changes in the accretion flow, the magnetic configuration, and the onset of the outflow. In ESA’s summary, researchers note that probing the magnetism of AGNs is essential to narrowing down exactly how winds reach such extreme velocities.

Not all experts agree on the dominant mechanism. Some researchers argue that radiation pressure is sufficient to explain most observed AGN winds, while others point to evidence that magnetically launched outflows may be more important in systems with powerful jets or highly variable flares. The NGC 3783 case is likely to be used as a testbed for competing models.


NGC 3783 in context: A well-studied active galaxy

NGC 3783 is not a new object to astronomers. Classified as a Seyfert 1 galaxy, it has been observed frequently in optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray light. Past studies have documented variable X-ray absorption features and multiple layers of ionized gas surrounding its active nucleus, making it a benchmark object for understanding AGN structure and variability.

Over the past two decades, missions such as NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton, and the Hubble Space Telescope have all contributed to a detailed picture of NGC 3783’s central environment. Earlier observations had already identified outflows with substantial velocities, but the newly reported wind—reaching around one-fifth the speed of light—appears to be among the fastest seen from this galaxy and ranks with some of the more extreme AGN winds known.

The latest campaign continues this long-term monitoring, allowing scientists to compare current behavior with archival data and to examine how the galaxy’s nucleus responds to major flaring events over time.


Scientific perspectives and open questions

The discovery has been welcomed by many astrophysicists as an important observational window into AGN feedback, but it also highlights several open questions and differing perspectives in the field.

  • How common are such ultra-fast winds? Some researchers argue that extreme outflows may be frequent in luminous AGNs but are hard to detect without long, sensitive observations in X-rays. Others suggest they might be relatively rare, associated with particular phases of black hole activity such as major flares.
  • Do these winds always impact their host galaxies significantly? While theory often assumes that AGN winds efficiently heat or expel gas from galactic centers, some observational studies find only modest effects on star formation in certain galaxies. The energy and momentum carried by the NGC 3783 wind will be compared with models to assess its likely impact.
  • What is the main driving mechanism? As noted by ESA and the study authors, magnetism is a key suspect, but measuring magnetic fields near black holes is challenging. Alternative views emphasize radiation pressure or hybrid models combining radiation and magnetic forces.

These debates are part of a broader effort to connect detailed, small-scale physics around black holes with the large-scale properties of galaxies. The NGC 3783 observations provide fresh data that theorists and modelers can use to refine or challenge existing frameworks.


Instruments, data, and verification

The research team relied on high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy, where small shifts in spectral lines must be measured with care. To ensure the detected wind was not an artifact, the authors compared spectra collected before, during, and after the flare and looked for consistent patterns across different instruments.

According to the peer-reviewed paper and accompanying ESA materials, the analysis involved:

  • Subtracting background noise and instrumental effects from the spectra.
  • Fitting physical models of ionized gas to the observed absorption features.
  • Estimating uncertainties in the outflow velocity and ionization state.
  • Comparing the new wind signatures with earlier observations of NGC 3783.

Independent experts often scrutinize such results by reanalyzing publicly available data or by observing the same object with different telescopes. Because the reported wind speed is near the upper end of known AGN outflows, further follow-up observations will be important to confirm its persistence, structure, and variability.


Implications for galaxy evolution and future research

The NGC 3783 wind adds to a growing catalog of ultra-fast outflows observed in AGNs. When incorporated into models of galaxy evolution, such winds may help explain why some galaxies stop forming stars relatively early, why massive galaxies host proportionally massive black holes, and how metals and energy are transported into galactic halos.

Looking ahead, astronomers expect that new X-ray missions—such as ESA’s Athena observatory, planned for the next decade—will provide sharper spectra and more comprehensive surveys of AGN winds across cosmic time. These future facilities could determine how typical the NGC 3783 event is and map out the full diversity of wind speeds, directions, and structures.

For now, the record-setting outflow from NGC 3783 serves as a detailed case study. By linking a specific flare to a well-measured wind, the observations give researchers a clearer timeline of how energy is released and redistributed near a supermassive black hole.



Visualizing the flaring black hole and its winds

Because black holes themselves do not emit light, images associated with the NGC 3783 discovery are artistic or scientific illustrations that depict how material behaves in the extreme environment around a supermassive black hole. These visualizations are based on models of accretion disks, magnetic fields, and high-speed outflows.

Illustration of a flaring supermassive black hole with a bright accretion disk launching powerful winds. Image credit: European Space Agency (ESA) / via Live Science.

A new benchmark for studying black hole winds

The detection of a wind moving at around one-fifth the speed of light from the supermassive black hole in NGC 3783 has provided astronomers with a detailed example of how energy can be released from active galactic nuclei after major flares. Documented in Astronomy & Astrophysics and highlighted by ESA and science outlets including Live Science, the event sets a new benchmark for observations of ultra-fast outflows.

As additional observations and theoretical studies build on these findings, scientists aim to clarify how often such extreme winds occur, how they are launched, and how much they contribute to shaping the galaxies that host them. The NGC 3783 wind is likely to remain a key reference point in that effort, serving as both a test of existing models and a guide for future X-ray missions.