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Black Hole Cluster Spawns Massive Cloud
Shifty Jim writes in with an article at space.com reporting that a cluster of galaxies harboring black holes may be the source of a massive cloud millions of light years across. Quoting: "A giant cloud of superheated gas 6 million light years wide might be formed by the collective sigh of several supermassive black holes, scientists say. The plasma cloud... might be the source of mysterious cosmic rays that permeate our universe... The plasma cloud is located about 300 million light years away near the Coma Cluster and is spread across a vast region of space thought to contain several galaxies with supermassive black holes... embedded at their centers."
Yesss, but I've just read some books on that, and I wonder if there would be enough Hawking Radiation to create an enormous superheated gas cloud. I mean, from wikipedia on Hawking radiation:
"The power in the Hawking radiation from a solar mass black hole turns out to be a minuscule 1028 watts. It is indeed an extremely good approximation to call such an object 'black'."
I mean, how heavy do you want those things to be? Its more likely that the radiation comes from the enormous forces excerted on matter around these black holes, not from the black holes themselves.
Correction: was located
That's that damnest thing about observing something 300 million light years away.