Astronomers Discover Massive Black Hole Feeding Frenzy in Distant Galaxy

An extraordinary glow in a galaxy far away has caught the attention of astronomers.

Galaxy SDSS1335+0728, 300 million light-years away from Earth, had an extraordinary occurrence in December 2019 when its center became very luminous. The phenomenon is best explained as a huge black hole swallowing its surroundings according to experts.

As of February 2019, SDSS1335+0728 emits optical, infrared, ultraviolet, and even X-ray radiation, unlike exploding stars, which can momentarily brighten a galaxy according to a report from Science Alert. According to astronomer Lorena Hernández García of the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS) and the University of Valparaíso in Chile, this may be the first real-time sighting of a big black hole.

Possible Explanations

She explained that unless they have stuff to eat, black holes are silent-- just like in the case of The Milky Way's supermassive black hole.

Scientists believe that an "active galactic nucleus" could potentially explain the abrupt brightening of a distant galaxy. This happens when a massive black hole in the galaxy's center starts eating material, according to The Guardian.

As gas around the black hole flares, active galactic nuclei release a wide range of light. Dust particles absorb and reradiate wavelengths, resulting in brightness.

This is not the only possible explanation. The researchers have not ruled out an unusual "tidal disruption event," which involves a star being torn apart after getting too close to a black hole.

Tidal disruptions seldom brighten a galaxy for more than a few hundred days. More data is needed to rule out this mechanism. With the data available now, experts say it is "impossible" to unravel which of the scenarios is factual, thus there is a need to "keep monitoring the source."

Astronomers will continue to study SDSS1335+0728 to comprehend better this unusual occurrence and its effects on our knowledge of the universe.

Scientists Trying to Answer the One Mystery of The Universe

For 50 years, scientists have struggled with the universe's lack of observable stuff. NASA claims that stars, planets, cosmic dust, and everything in between cannot explain the universe's behavior. Researchers think their observations need five times more matter. Dark matter is invisible because it does not interact with light.

A recent report from CNN highlighted astronomers' attempt to explain dark matter. US astronomers, Vera Rubin and W. Kent Ford studied stars near the borders of spiral galaxies in the 1970s to prove the dark matter. They found that these stars were traveling too rapidly for the galaxy's apparent matter and gravity to hold them, indicating that a lot of invisible mass binds the galaxy.

Rubin famously observed, "What you see in a spiral galaxy is not what you get." Her research began a protracted quest for dark matter based on Fritz Zwicky's 1930s concept.

Despite decades of research and advanced detection gear, scientists have not directly observed dark matter. Early in this research, Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes from the Big Bang era could conceal dark matter.

MIT researchers have examined Hawking's idea, which may explain the composition of primordial black holes and uncover a new, unusual black hole, per the report. Research co-author David Kaiser said they utilized the famous black hole calculations of Stephen Hawking to try to explain dark matter resulting in "unusual black holes."

Scientists have proposed strange particles and other dimensions for dark matter. Hawking's black hole theory is just now being seriously considered. MIT graduate student Elba Alonso-Monsalve, a study co-author said people thought black holes were "just a mathematical fun fact" during the early 20th century.

Nearly every galaxy has a black hole at its heart, and gravitational waves from colliding black holes according to a 2015 finding. However, researchers have not detected the dark matter particles, despite searching all the usual sites. According to Alonso-Monsalve, this does not imply that dark matter is not a particle or black hole-- It might be both.