As the second eROSITA data release expands the catalogue of the X-ray sky, a team from the University of Bonn has analyzed a massive galaxy cluster and its cosmic filaments

A recent study by Angie Veronica et al. uses galaxy group and cluster catalogs from the first eROSITA all-sky survey, together with radio observations from ASKAP, to explore how central supermassive black holes influence the largest objects in the Universe: galaxy clusters. At the centers of galaxy clusters, active supermassive black holes, also known as active galactic nuclei (AGNs), launch jets that can heat the surrounding hot gas. Understanding how effective this "AGN feedback" is has been a major effort in astrophysics. By analysing 151 galaxy clusters, the team finds that radio jets tend to grow larger where their host galaxy is not perfectly aligned with the cluster center, suggesting that the environment shapes jet evolution. They also detect a weak link between jet power and gas cooling in cluster cores. However, in the most massive galaxy clusters, the jets do not produce enough energy to balance the cooling. This indicates that additional heating sources may be needed to keep these systems stable.