Astronomers have watched a black hole in a distant galaxy 'wake up' and start emitting light and strong radiation as it begins to eat.
The galaxy SDSS1335+0728 suddenly started shining brighter than ever before -- waking up and giving off strong radiation. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
This is what happened to SDSS1335+0728, which is now officially classified as having an active galactic nucleus . It experienced what’s called a “nuclear transient.” Essentially, that means the galaxy now has a very bright compact region. However, it wasn’t always that bright and astronomers want to understand what caused it to wake up.
A black hole itself doesn’t emit any light at all. Instead, it sucks everything in, including light. However, the region around the black hole—called the accretion disk—is a pretty active place. It’s where material trapped by the intense gravitational pull of the black hole swirls around like water going down a drain. All that stuff—mostly gas, some dust—is threaded through with magnetic fields. Friction between accretions of the material heats it up.
Eventually you get these gargantuan monsters. They just sit there and nibble away at passing gas clouds to gain additional mass. That’s how they gain mass through acquisitions, which occur over shorter timescales. This is apparently what the one in SDSS1335+0728 is doing now. It’s just not often that astronomers get to see one wake up and start munching away in a short period of time.
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