mossadnik OP t1_is13a05 wrote
Submission Statement:
>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.
Joaaayknows t1_is1gqwi wrote
His statement implies black holes can get full which is quite funny but also very interesting.
Do we have any information of what the composition of the expelled matter was?
Like, is it star bits stripped down to molecules or a jumble of different gasses entirely which I would describe as, sticking with this analogy, ‘throwing up’?
cybercuzco t1_is2kpvi wrote
The exit velocity is .5c but I wonder how close to c this material got. We could be seeing time dilation effects. Presumably as it comes out of the gravity well its going to slow down, so if they see it going half the speed of light now, it must have been going really close to the speed of light at closest approach
jedrt-theloser t1_is3lgvc wrote
Could the ejection be caused by a rotating black hole?
cybercuzco t1_is3m04a wrote
All black holes rotate, you would have to create one artificially to get it to be non-rotational
GrandWazoo0 t1_is4il04 wrote
Didn’t this star get ripped to shreds 665 million years ago, not in October 2018?
Bensemus t1_is7p895 wrote
Not really. Our reality is our reference frame. To us this event just happened. To the black hole you won't be born for 665 million years yet here you are.
There is no absolute reference frame.
Artificial_Chris t1_is4nwji wrote
Yes, technically. But the "Burp" happened 665 million years ago too in that case.
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