Monster black hole 'belching' twice after swallowing gas

After consuming gas from a nearby galaxy, a supermassive black hole was discovered to emit two rays of light thought to be "burping", which is rare for cosmic black holes.

Assistant professor Julie Comerford, who led the study, said it was one of the few times astronomers encountered a black hole glowing after eating gas.

"We witnessed this object beating, burping, going on vacation and repeating the process. This is as scientists have predicted," said Boulder research leader of the University of Colorado.

"Fortunately, we observed this galaxy for a long enough time to see both events clearly," Sky News quoted Comerford as saying.

Rare discovery

are supermassive black holes millions of times heavier than the Sun and are thought to be at the center of most galaxies.

Like normal black holes, they are space-time zones with a gravitational effect so strong that even electromagnetic radiation like light cannot escape.

When cosmic gas comes near a black hole, it will be sucked in but some energy will be released back into space in the form of belching.

The light came from the "burping" of the black hole.(Photo: NASA).

and Chandra discovered burping from a black hole some 800 million light-years away. Later, scientists found the remnants of another "burp" that occurred 100,000 years ago.

"There are many examples of black holes emitting single" burps "but we have discovered a galaxy with a supermassive black hole that not only has one but twice burping," said Julie Comerford. at the 23rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

The "burping" includes a high-energy stream of particles released from the black hole. X-rays emanating from the SDSS J1354 + 1327 collected by the Chandra telescope helped scientists locate its central black hole.

The Hubble telescope spotted a blue gas cloud spread out from a black hole that showed traces of previous burp. The team found that the electrons were stripped from the atoms in this gas stream and surmised that this was due to the emission in the vicinity of the black hole. This gas flow has expanded 30,000 light years away from the central black hole.

Meanwhile, scientists also found signs of a new burp that is coming out of the cosmic black hole."This burp is really moving like a shock wave coming out very quickly," Dr. Comerford said.

The voracious rude

"Black holes are like gluttons who don't know how to be polite when eating," said the researcher.

To figure it out in a simple way, Comerford compares this cosmic event with someone coming to dinner at your house, they beat the cup and burp, then continue to eat and burp.

"When you walk into the room, you realize the smell of burp still lingers after the appetizer. Meanwhile, the guest is using the main dish and belching to the kitchen , " Comerford said.

The Chandra space telescope is used to locate the galaxy's central black hole.(Photo: NASA).

According to the BBC, this observation has demonstrated previous theories about how black holes repeat their holiday cycles. They light up during material consumption and burping, then become dark again during the rest period.

"Hypothetically, black holes will light up and darken quickly. The new evidence shows that this time period is 100,000 years, very long compared to humans but very short compared to time in the universe , " Julie said. Comerford said.

Researchers believe that black holes burp twice because they eat two separate meals. This may be because its galaxy has collided with another nearby galaxy. Thanks to that, a lot of cosmic gas was created for the black hole to hit the cup.

"There is a stellar aura and the gas connects these two galaxies, the collision leads the gas to the supermassive black hole and gives it two separate meals, which leads to two times of burping," said the researcher. University of Colorado said.