When black holes swallow down massive amounts of matter from the space around them, they're not exactly subtle about it. They belch out tremendous flares of X-rays, generated by the material heating to intense temperatures as it's sucked towards the black hole, so bright we can detect them from Earth.
This is normal black hole behaviour. What isn't normal is for those X-ray flares to spew forth with clockwork regularity, a puzzling behaviour reported in 2019 from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy 250 million light-years away. Every nine hours, boom - X-ray flare.
While you're here, how about this:
Extreme black holes have hair that can be combed | EurekAlert! Science News
IMAGE: Artist's conception of a rotating black hole accreting matter via an accretion disk and emitting a jet. view more
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Black holes are considered amongst the most mysterious objects in the universe. Part of their intrigue arises from the fact that they are actually amongst the simplest solutions to Einstein's field equations of general relativity. In fact, black holes can be fully characterized by only three physical quantities: their mass, spin and charge.
Study finds new way to extract energy from black hole - Big Think
A new study explains how a chaotic region just outside a black hole's event horizon might provide a virtually endless supply of energy.
Like the Sun, the stars scattered throughout our Milky Way and beyond produce unfathomable amounts of energy. But so, too, do the objects we can't see: black holes.
For decades, scientists have wondered whether it's possible to extract energy from black holes, which are the mysterious regions of spacetime that form when stars collapse into themselves. Siphoning energy from these areas of ultra-condensed matter could provide a virtually endless power supply for deep-space civilizations, if physically and practically possible.
Black hole discovery: Galaxies would be STRIPPED of matter in deadly head on collision | Science
University of Tokyo researchers have created their “most accurate simulation” on supercomputers of what happens when two galaxies merge, using a range of scenarios to better understand the phenomena. Under specific “head on collision” conditions, the researchers believe galactic nuclei would be cleared of matter leaving black holes “suppressed” with nothing to fuel itself with.
Previously it was understood collisions between galaxies would necessarily add to the activity of MBHs by introducing more matter.
While you're here, how about this:
Missing supermassive black hole at centre of distant galaxy baffles scientists | Science & Tech
Researchers detect something highly unusual about bright cluster galaxy A2261-BCG, which could be a "recoiling" black hole.
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Scientists are baffled by a missing supermassive black hole which should by normal expectations sit in the centre of a distant galaxy.
Instead, according to researchers at a handful of North American universities, there appears to be something highly unusual about the bright cluster galaxy A2261-BCG.
Could We Harness Energy from Black Holes? | Columbia News
A remarkable prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity—the theory that connects space, time, and gravity—is that rotating black holes have enormous amounts of energy available to be tapped.
For the last 50 years, scientists have tried to come up with methods to unleash this power. Nobel physicist Roger Penrose theorized that a particle disintegration could draw energy from a black hole; Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes could release energy through quantum mechanical emission; while Roger Blandford and Roman Znajek suggested electromagnetic torque as a main agent of energy extraction.
Study uncovers key details of the black hole when three galaxies collide - Tech Explorist
Studying galactic collisions is essential to understand how subsequent mergers are vital so that galaxies and the giant black holes in their cores grow over cosmic time.
Several studies have shed light on what happens to supermassive black holes when two galaxies merge. A new study has discovered what happens to the huge black holes after the collision of three galaxies.
The study used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other telescopes to uncover new information about how many black holes are furiously growing after these galactic smash-ups.
Supermassive black hole missing: Scientists left confused - CBBC Newsround
Scientists have been left scratching their heads, as it appears a supermassive black hole at the centre of a far off galaxy seems to be missing.
Despite searching with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope , astronomers have no evidence that a distant black hole estimated to weigh up to 100 billion times the mass of the Sun is anywhere to be found.
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A light-year is the distance light travels in one earth year (it's a long way - about 9 trillion km/6 trillion miles). So when astronomers look at this black hole they're actually seeing how it appeared far in the past.
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