'We've Never Seen Anything Like This Before:' Black Hole Spews Out Material Years After Shredding ..

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https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/weve-never-seen-anything-black-hole-spews-out-material-years-after-shredding-star

‘We’ve Never Seen Anything Like This Before:’ Black Hole Spews Out Material Years After Shredding Star

10.12.22 News Release

Astronomers have observed a black hole burping up stellar remains years after it shredded and consumed the star.

Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab

Cambridge, MA– In October 2018, a small star was ripped to shreds when it wandered too close to a black hole in a galaxy located 665 million light years away from Earth. Though it may sound thrilling, the event did not come as a surprise to astronomers who occasionally witness these violent incidents while scanning the night sky.

But nearly three years after the massacre, the same black hole is lighting up the skies again — and it hasn’t swallowed anything new, scientists say.

“This caught us completely by surprise — no one has ever seen anything like this before,” says Yvette Cendes, a research associate at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) and lead author of a new study analyzing the phenomenon.

The team concludes that the black hole is now ejecting material traveling at half of the speed of light, but are unsure why the outflow was delayed by several years. The results, described this week in the Astrophysical Journal, may help scientists better understand black holes’ feeding behavior, which Cendes likens to “burping” after a meal.

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