Giant black hole's powerful burst observed by scientists

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Giant Black Hole's Powerful Burst Observed By Scientists
Giant Black Hole's Powerful Burst Observed By Scientists

Black holes are known for being incredibly powerful vortices of doom from which nothing ever escapes, but that is not an entirely accurate assessment.

From time to time, the celestial forces bite off a bit more than they can chew and emit the excess.

In a recently published paper, an international team of astronomers led by the University of Southampton describe just such an event but with a rather spectacular twist – the exiting jets appeared as bright red bursts.

The black hole in question is V404 Cygni, the first of its kind discovered in our galaxy.

a movie of fast red flashes from V404 Cygni observed by the ULTRACAM fast imager on the William Herschel Telescope in the early morning hours of June 26, 2015.
a movie of fast red flashes from V404 Cygni observed by the ULTRACAM fast imager on the William Herschel Telescope in the early morning hours of June 26, 2015.

Prior to the red blast sightings, which were made in June of 2015, the gravitational juggernaut had been feasting on a companion star.

Each of the flashes detected lasted only a portion of a second but packed an energy intensity equal to roughly 1,000 suns.

Lead researcher Dr. Poshak Gandhi believes the speed of the expulsions indicates they came from an especially compact area in the black hole, but questions remain as to their exact origin.

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