A phenomenon that astronomers didn't ever expect to see happen in real time.

By

Amit Malewar

17 Jan, 2025

4 min read

Updated 17 Jan, 2025

Summary

A large international team of scientists observed a rare event in real time: a dramatic increase in radio emission and the formation of plasma jets from a black hole in the galaxy 1ES 1927+654, 270 million light-years away. This galaxy has been classified as an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a black hole at its center.

Active galaxy 1ES 1927+654, circled, has exhibited extraordinary changes since 2018, when a major outburst occurred in visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray light. The galaxy harbors a central black hole weighing about 1.4 million solar masses and is located 270 million light-years away. (NASA/GSFC)

In 2018, a black hole was observed with a sudden increase in its activity and rate of consuming material. It became much brighter in the visible light spectrum over the course of a few months

Such a shift was believed to take thousands to millions of years, far longer than a human lifetime. Scientists have been closely watching for new phenomena, and 1ES 1927+654 has indeed delivered.

The black hole calmed by 2020 but dramatically increased its activity in 2023. Within just a few months, it emitted radio waves at 60 times its previous intensity, a behavior that has never been observed in real time for a supermassive black hole.

A large international team of scientists has observed a phenomenon that astronomers didn't expect to see happen in real-time. A new study reports remarkable increases in radio emission in a few months and the formation of plasma jets extending from a black hole over a year.

More:

https://www.techexplorist.com/real-time-formation-black-hole-jets-observed-first-time/96175/