Dormant for at least two decades, a supermassive black hole located in the constellation Virgo is active again, reports BFMTV . It suddenly began to shine, illuminating his heart, according to the conclusions of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) published Tuesday June 18, 2024 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. “A phenomenon never before observed in real time! »ensures ESO on X.
300 million light years from Earth
The observations date back to December 2019. Scientists carried out research using space and ground observatories, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to understand the nature of this flicker within the galaxy SDSS1335 + 0728, located at 300 million light years from Earth, precise Futura Sciences .
Understanding what precisely happens within these active galactic nuclei is not easy. Most galaxies contain a massive black hole at their center. It is invisible, hence its name. Its force of gravity is so strong that it prevents all light from escaping. It is only visible when it engulfs surrounding matter, like a star. We then see a strong emission of light. This is the process of tidal rupture.
“This behavior is unprecedented”
For scientists, “the most tangible option” stay “the activation of a massive black hole in real time”according to Chilean ESO astronomer Lorena Hernández Garcia. “This behavior is unprecedented”, added the astronomer and first author of the study. This black hole has “suddenly began to feed on the gas available in its environment, thus becoming very luminous” summarizes Professor Ricci for his part.
According to the first elements, this black hole would have a mass equivalent to 1.5 million times that of the Sun, which remains a small size. Some of these black holes exceed a billion solar masses. New observations will make it possible to understand if this awakening is episodic, either resulting from a rupture by tidal effect, or if it is the accretion of surrounding gas. This would then mean that the galaxy is entering a so-called active phase. The black hole in our Milky Way is asleep.
