Telescopes Capture Black Hole Spewing Out Matter Twice

Image: Galaxy SDSS J1354+1327 which contains the black hole in question via NASA/CXC/University of Colorado/ STScI/ J. Comerford et al.

 Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder have spotted a rapidly growing supermassive black hole in the centre of a distant galaxy that appears to have consumed most of its large amounts of gas while blasting an outflow of high-energy particles. This outflow eventually switched off and then turned back on about 100,000 years later.
 Although it seems like nothing escapes a black hole, this is not always entirely the case. Sometimes X-rays are produced by gas heated to millions of degrees by the enormous gravitational and magnetic forces near the black hole. While most of the gas will fall into the black hole, a portion will be expelled in the form of high-energy particles.
 According to the optical data obtained from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, in the past, this black hole appeared to have consumed large amounts of gas while blasting off an outflow of high-energy particles. Yet eventually this outflow ebbed out.
 This study presents strong evidence that accreting black holes are capable of switching their power output off and on again over timescales relatively short compared to the age of the universe.

Read more about this fascinating study at: http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/flickering-supermassive-black-hole-05629.html