Black hole that ‘burps’, not only once, but twice | Watch Video

Did you know that Black hole who sits, eats and also ‘burps’, not only once, but twice? This supermassive blackhole eats up massive violent stars and the hot cosmic gas and releases burps in the form of highly charged particles having energy in huge amount.

Scientists noticed one doing so not once, but twice - the first time this has been observed.

The two burps occur within the span of 100,000 years, confirm that supermassive black holes go through cycles of hibernation and activity.

Dr. Julie Comerford from the University of Colorado at Boulder and colleagues used observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, as well as the W.M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and the Apache Point Observatory near Sunspot, New Mexico.

Chandra detected a bright, point-like source of X-ray emission from J1354, a tell-tale sign of the presence of an extremely massive black hole.

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The X-rays are produced by gas heated to millions of degrees by the enormous gravitational and magnetic forces near the black hole. Some of this gas will fall into the black hole, while a portion will be expelled in a powerful outflow of high-energy particles.

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By comparing images from Chandra and Hubble, the astronomers determined that the black hole is located in the centre of the galaxy, the expected address for such an object.

The X-ray data also show that the supermassive black hole is embedded in a heavy veil of gas.

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We are seeing this object feast, burp and nap, and then feast and burp once again, which theory had predicted,” Dr. Comerford said.

“Fortunately, we happened to observe this galaxy at a time when we could clearly see evidence for both events.”

“This galaxy really caught us off guard,” said co-author Rebecca Nevin, a doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“We were able to show that the gas from the northern part of the galaxy was consistent with an advancing edge of a shock wave, and the gas from the south was consistent with an older outflow from the black hole.”