Sharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X @skuthunur
Astronomers have spotted the first known instance of a black hole"hiccup," from a distant cosmic behemoth. The cosmic belches suggest the swirling disks of matter and gas that surround black holes may be home to bigger cosmic objects than previously thought.
These hiccups"were a total surprise," study lead author Dheeraj Pasham, a research scientist with the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research in Massachusetts, told Live Science."We kept scratching our heads for months until the theorists in the Czech Republic came in and provided an explanation of a secondary black hole, which appears to explain all the properties of this system.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.The researchers suspect the immense gravity of the supermassive black hole will someday swallow its companion black hole in a merger, perhaps more than 10,000 years in the future"Because the smaller black hole weighs substantially less than the main black hole, the merger timescale is long," Pasham told Live Science.
After discussing the process with colleagues, the researchers determined the black hole hiccuped every time the orbiting secondary black hole punched through the accretion disk, pushing out more material than usual.
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