Massive Black Hole Awakens, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
'The Guardian' reports that astronomers have traced the mysterious brightening of a distant galaxy to the awakening of a massive black hole.
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The black hole at the center of the remote star system is one million times more massive than our own sun.
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At the end of 2019, decades of unremarkable observations of the the distant galaxy in the constellation Virgo changed when a dramatic surge in luminosity was detected.
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This significant increase in brightness has persisted to this day, and researchers now believe that they are witnessing an event never seen before.
We discovered this source at the moment it started to show these variations in luminosity.
It’s the first time we’ve see this in real time, Dr Paula Sanchez-Saez, Staff astronomer at the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Garching, Germany, via 'The Guardian'.
In 2019, when the Zwicky Transient Facility first recorded the sudden increase in brightness, scientists scrambled to understand more about the galaxy's unprecedented behavior.
Observations revealed that the galaxy doubled in brightness in mid-infrared wavelengths, while ultraviolet brightness increased by four times and X-rays by ten.
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Researchers say the most likely explanation would be the creation of an “active galactic nucleus,” which occurs when a black hole begins consuming the material surrounding it.
The team believe the change could also be related to an exotic form of "tidal disruption event," meaning a star was ripped apart after venturing too close to the black hole.
With the data we have at the moment, it’s impossible to disentangle which of these scenarios is real.
We need to keep monitoring the source, Dr Paula Sanchez-Saez, Staff astronomer at the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Garching, Germany, via 'The Guardian'
