CXC/STScI: Researchers Catch Supermassive Black Hole Burping — Twice

[bystander]

Researchers Catch Supermassive Black Hole Burping — Twice
NASA | STScI | HubbleSite | Chandra X-ray Observatory | 2018 Jan 11

NASA Great Observatories Team-up to Identify Flickering Black Hole

[c][attachment=0]j1354[1].jpg[/attachment][/c]

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Supermassive black holes, weighing millions of times as much as our Sun, are gatherers not hunters. Embedded in the hearts of galaxies, they will lie dormant for a long time until the next meal happens to come along.

The team of astronomers using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and as well as the W.M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and the Apache Point Observatory (APO) near Sunspot, New Mexico, zeroed in on a flickering black hole.

A black hole in the center of galaxy SDSS J1354+1327, located about 800 million light-years away, appears to have consumed large amounts of gas while blasting off an outflow of high-energy particles. The fresh burst of fuel might have been supplied by a bypassing galaxy. The outflow eventually switched off then turned back on about 100,000 years later. This is strong evidence that accreting black holes can switch their power output off and on again over timescales that are short compared to the 13.8-billion-year age of the universe.

Researchers Catch Supermassive Black Hole Burping — Twice
University of Colorado, Boulder | 2018 Jan 11

An Active Galactic Nucleus Caught in the Act of Turning Off and On - Julia M. Comerford et al

• Astrophysical Journal 849(2):102 (2017 Nov 10) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa8e4b
  arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1710.00825 > 02 Oct 2017

[BDanielMayfield]

In some cultures, isn't burping a way of thanking the cook? This SMBH must have really liked its meal.

[Ann]

Click to view full size image

[c]Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/Univ of Colorado/J. Comerford et al.;
Optical: NASA/STScI[/c]

How weird! The object at top looks like a galaxy, with a yellow galactic bulge surrounded by a broad blue ring. A blue arm extends to the upper left, and a twisted tidal tail, extending to the lower left, appears to end in a very bright and energetic blob, the site of the supermassive black hole.

My point is that it doesn't look as if the black hole is located in the center of the galaxy, but in a twisted tidal tail extending from it.

Ann

[geckzilla]

Click to view full size image

[c]Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/Univ of Colorado/J. Comerford et al.;
Optical: NASA/STScI[/c]

How weird! The object at top looks like a galaxy, with a yellow galactic bulge surrounded by a broad blue ring. A blue arm extends to the upper left, and a twisted tidal tail, extending to the lower left, appears to end in a very bright and energetic blob, the site of the supermassive black hole.

My point is that it doesn't look as if the black hole is located in the center of the galaxy, but in a twisted tidal tail extending from it.

This is one of those voorwerp things. The blob below was energized by a beam from the black hole. ...twice, apparently.

[Ann]

How weird! The object at top looks like a galaxy, with a yellow galactic bulge surrounded by a broad blue ring. A blue arm extends to the upper left, and a twisted tidal tail, extending to the lower left, appears to end in a very bright and energetic blob, the site of the supermassive black hole.

My point is that it doesn't look as if the black hole is located in the center of the galaxy, but in a twisted tidal tail extending from it.

This is one of those voorwerp things. The blob below was energized by a beam from the black hole. ...twice, apparently.

Click to view full size image

Hanny's Voorwerp. Blob energized by black hole in a galaxy.
NASA, ESA, W. Keel (Univ. Alabama), et al., Galaxy Zoo Team

I see! Thanks, Geck!

Ann