The scientists reportedly witnessed the black hole’s corona alternating in its brightness over the course of 40 days.
Researchers studying a supermassive black hole located in galaxy 1ES 1927+654, located millions of light-years away, have detected a peculiar phenomenon in that celestial body’s corona as it suddenly “snuffed out” before “gradually returning to brightness”, Science Alert reports.
According to the media outlet, the scientists witnessed the black hole’s corona dimming and brightening over the course of 40 days, while they apparently expected the kind of changes they observed to occur over a much longer period of time.
The astronomers first noticed that something was amiss in 1ES 1927+654 when the All-Sky Automated Survey for Super-Novae (ASASSN) detected an “incredibly bright flare” from the galaxy.
Subsequent observations revealed that 160 days after said flare, the galaxy’s nucleus started to dim, getting “totally snuffed out” in 40 days; yet, after 300 days of the initial flare, the nucleus was “shining almost 20 times more brightly than it had been prior to the initial event”, the media outlet notes.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
