A supermassive black hole was spotted coming back to life after it released a gigantic flare of energy. According to reports, it was tranquil for years before it started feeding on vast amounts of materials near it.
Supermassive Black Hole Releases Strong Energy J221951
Around 10 billion light years away, a massive black hole ejected a strong energy flare known as J221951-484240, or J221951, one of the most brilliant transient objects ever observed. The information was presented on Tuesday at the annual National Astronomy Meeting in the United Kingdom by Samantha Oates, an astronomer at the University of Birmingham in England, Newsweek reported.
According to Matt Nicholl, a member of the astronomy team from Queen's University Belfast and co-author of the paper, recent discoveries of stars being torn apart and accreting black holes with enormously variable luminosities have greatly increased our understanding of the various things that supermassive black holes can do. One of the most extreme instances of a black hole catching us off guard so far is J221951.
Due to J221951's location being compatible with where the supermassive black hole of a nearby red galaxy would be predicted to reside, researchers hypothesize that J221951 and its unusual brightness may be the result of a supermassive black hole quickly feeding on the material in its neighborhood.
It was also discovered that the J221951 flare "switched on" abruptly after a protracted period of calm, and its sudden awakening was accompanied by an ultraviolet spectrum that showed a significant amount of material had been pushed out by a significant energy release.
When Do Supermassive Black Holes Start Feeding?
The Milky Way revolves around the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*, which is gigantic and is assumed to be at the center of every galaxy. Due to the limited amount of material, they can devour, these supermassive black holes are typically fairly quiet, but when they do, they release enormous bursts of activity.
Astronomers have proposed two possibilities to explain why the supermassive black hole started eating abruptly and violently.
The J221951 flare results from a sudden feeding on the gaseous accretion disc of material surrounding the supermassive black hole in the second scenario. The first scenario involves a tidal disruption event when a star passes close by a supermassive black hole and is torn apart. The second scenario is when the supermassive black hole switches from dormant to active and feeds on the materials surrounding it
According to Nicholl, they might be able to determine if this is a tidal disturbance of a star by a fast-spinning black hole or a new type of active galactic nucleus switch on by continuing to watch J221951 to determine the overall energy output.
Oates added in the statement that in the future, they would be able to gather crucial hints that aid in differentiating between the tidal disruption event and active galactic nuclei scenarios. For example, if J221951 is connected to an AGN, they may anticipate it will stop fading and brighten up again.
However, if J221951 is a tidal disruption event, they would anticipate that it will keep fading. Over the coming months and years, they will watch J221951 and observe its late-night activities.
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