I'm an award-winning journalist writing about the night sky and eclipses.
Scientists have watched in awe the awakening of a massive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy for the first time ever.
A five-year study of a galaxy that mysteriously brightened in 2019 has observed changes never seen before in a galaxy. The change is thought to be the result of the massive black hole at its core devouring gas in its surroundings, making the galaxy light up.Massive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, including the Milky Way, but are typically “sleeping” and not directly visible.
massive black hole at the centre of the galaxy SDSS1335+0728. The core of this galaxy lit up in 2019 and keeps brightening today — the first time we observe a massive black hole become active in real time.As well as getting brighter in optical wavelengths of light, the galaxy is now radiating much more light at ultraviolet, optical and infrared wavelengths, say the researchers. In February, it also began emitting X-rays. Astronomers have never seen anything like it.
What’s happening to SDSS1335+0728 suggests that the same is possible in the Milky Way, where its massive black hole, Sgr A*, could awake. The galaxy, which is 300 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, has since 2019 been studied using ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, and two of NASA’s space telescopes, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and Chandra X-ray Observatory.Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations.
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