Journal article
Nature, 2025
APA
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Boissay-Malaqu, M. H. R. A. E. R. L. G. V. L. A. A. B. B. B., Audard, M., Awaki, H., Ballhausen, R., Bamba, A., Behar, E., … Xu, Y. (2025). Structured ionized winds shooting out from a quasar at relativistic speeds. Nature.
Chicago/Turabian
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Boissay-Malaqu, Marc Hisamitsu Ralf Aya Ehud Rozenn Laura Gregory V. Li Audard Awaki Ballhausen Bamba Behar, M. Audard, H. Awaki, R. Ballhausen, A. Bamba, E. Behar, R. Boissay-Malaquin, et al. “Structured Ionized Winds Shooting out from a Quasar at Relativistic Speeds.” Nature (2025).
MLA
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Boissay-Malaqu, Marc Hisamitsu Ralf Aya Ehud Rozenn Laura Gregory V. Li Audard Awaki Ballhausen Bamba Behar, et al. “Structured Ionized Winds Shooting out from a Quasar at Relativistic Speeds.” Nature, 2025.
BibTeX Click to copy
@article{marc2025a,
title = {Structured ionized winds shooting out from a quasar at relativistic speeds},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nature},
author = {Boissay-Malaqu, Marc Hisamitsu Ralf Aya Ehud Rozenn Laura Gregory V. Li Audard Awaki Ballhausen Bamba Behar and Audard, M. and Awaki, H. and Ballhausen, R. and Bamba, A. and Behar, E. and Boissay-Malaquin, R. and Brenneman, L. and Brown, Gregory V. and Corrales, Lia and Costantini, E. and Cumbee, R. and Trigo, M. and Done, C. and Dotani, T. and Ebisawa, K. and Eckart, M. and Eckert, Dominique and Enoto, T. and Eguchi, Satoshi and Ezoe, Y. and Foster, Adam R. and Fujimoto, R. and Fujita, Yutaka and Fukazawa, Y. and Fukushima, Kotaro and Furuzawa, A. and Gallo, L. and García, Javier A. and Gu, Liyi and Guainazzi, M. and Hagino, Kouichi and Hamaguchi, Kenji and Hatsukade, I. and Hayashi, Katsuhiro and Hayashi, T. and Hell, N. and Hodges-Kluck, E. and Hornschemeier, A. and Ichinohe, Y. and Ishida, Manabu and Ishikawa, K. and Ishisaki, Y. and Kaastra, J. and Kallman, T. and Kara, E. and Katsuda, S. and Kanemaru, Y. and Kelley, Rich and Kilbourne, C. and Kitamoto, S. and Kobayashi, S. and Kohmura, T. and Kubota, A. and Leutenegger, M. and Loewenstein, M. and Maeda, Y. and Markevitch, M. and Matsumoto, Hironori and Matsushita, K. and McCammon, D. and McNamara, Brian and Mernier, F. and Miller, E. and Miller, Jon M. and Mitsuishi, I. and Mizumoto, M. and Mizuno, T. and Mori, K. and Mukai, K. and Murakami, Hiroshi and Mushotzky, R. and Nakajima, H. and Nakazawa, K. and Ness, J. and Nobukawa, K. and Nobukawa, M. and Noda, Hirofumi and Odaka, H. and Ogawa, S. and Ogorzałek, A. and Okajima, T. and Ota, Naomi and Paltani, S. and Petre, R. and Plucinsky, P. and Porter, F. and Pottschmidt, K. and Sato, Kosuke and Sato, Toshiki and Sawada, M. and Seta, H. and Shidatsu, M. and Simionescu, A. and Smith, Randall K. and Suzuki, Hiromasa and Szymkowiak, A. and Takahashi, H. and Takeo, M. and Tamagawa, T. and Tamura, Keisuke and Tanaka, Takaaki and Tanimoto, A. and Tashiro, M. and Terada, Y. and Terashima, Y. and Tsuboi, Y. and Tsujimoto, M. and Tsunemi, H. and Tsuru, T. and Uchida, Hiroyuki and Uchida, N. and Uchida, Y. and Uchiyama, H. and Ueda, Y. and Uno, S. and Vink, J. and Watanabe, S. and Williams, Brian J. and Yamada, S. and Yamada, S. and Yamaguchi, Hiroya and Yamaoka, K. and Yamasaki, N. and Yamauchi, M. and Yamauchi, S. and Yaqoob, T. and Yoneyama, T. and Yoshida, Tessei and Yukita, M. and Zhuravleva, I. and Braito, V. and Condò, P. and Fukumura, K. and Gonzalez, Adam G. and Luminari, A. and Miyamoto, Aiko and Mizukawa, Ryuki and Reeves, J. and Sato, Riki and Tombesi, F. and Xu, Yerong}
}
Evidence indicates that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) exist at the centres of most galaxies. Their mass correlates with the galactic bulge mass1, suggesting a coevolution with their host galaxies2, most likely through powerful winds3. X-ray observations have detected highly ionized winds outflowing at sub-relativistic speeds from the accretion disks around SMBHs4,5. However, the limited spectral resolution of present X-ray instruments has left the physical structure and location of the winds poorly understood, hindering accurate estimates of their kinetic power6,7. Here the first X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) observation of the luminous quasar PDS 456 is reported. The high-resolution spectrometer Resolve aboard XRISM enabled the discovery of five discrete velocity components outflowing at 20–30% of the speed of light. This demonstrates that the wind structure is highly inhomogeneous, which probably consists of up to a million clumps. The mass outflow rate is estimated to be 60–300 solar masses per year, with the wind kinetic power exceeding the Eddington luminosity limit. Compared with the galaxy-scale outflows, the kinetic power is more than three orders of magnitude larger, whereas the momentum flux is ten times larger. These estimates disfavour both energy-driven and momentum-driven outflow models. This suggests that such wind activity occurs in less than 10% of the quasar phase and/or that its energy/momentum is not efficiently transferred to the galaxy-scale outflows owing to the clumpiness of the wind and the interstellar medium. Observations of a luminous quasar from the high-resolution spectrometer Resolve aboard XRISM revealed highly inhomogeneous wind structure outflowing from a supermassive black hole, which probably consists of up to a million clumps.