Observing a black hole, the telescope was suddenly 'bombed' by a strange phenomenon

A bizarre phenomenon described by Harvard scientists as a cosmic burp has been recorded by the Very Large Radio Telescope system located in New Mexico - USA while observing a mysterious black hole.

According to Daily Mail, the mysterious black hole AT2018hyz has been observed since 2018, the same year scientists discovered it devouring a star. But instead of spitting out a certain amount of matter into space, the mysterious black hole suddenly "hibernated" for 3 years.

But in 2021, the Very Large system was suddenly "bombarded" by a strange black hole that suddenly exploded for several months. The radio waves emitted from it were determined to be the matter of the star that it had torn apart and swallowed a few years earlier.

Very Large Radio Telescope System located in New Mexico - USA - (Photo: NRAO).

The mysterious event was examined by a research team from many institutes, schools, and centers under Harvard University - USA.

According to Dr. Yvette Cendes from the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, lead author of a study recently published in the Astrophysical Journal, this is the first time that the phenomenon of a black hole "swallowing" a meal for many years before spitting out material in return has been recorded.

The phenomenon of a black hole eating something and spitting out matter generally occurs when an unlucky star approaches a black hole and is torn apart, then turned into a long hot noodle, also known as a "tidal disruption" (TDE) , which will cause the black hole to flare up spectacularly.

The special thing about this TDE is not only the 3-year delay, but also the unimaginable speed - instead of having an average speed of 10% of the speed of light, the speed of the matter flow this time is up to 50% of the speed of light.

Graphic image depicting a black hole spewing matter after a meal - (Photo: SCIENCE COMMUNICATION)

Black holes are one of the most mysterious objects in the universe because scientists cannot actually "see" them directly, but can only observe them indirectly through the light from the matter they emit during their meals. Therefore, a strange, unprecedented phenomenon like what just happened to AT2018hyz will open an interesting door to more clearly studying the behavior of black holes.

AT2018hyz is a black hole 665 million light-years from Earth. The star it devoured has a mass about 1/10th that of our Sun.