An international team of astronomers has detected changes never before seen in the galaxy, likely due to the sudden “awakening” of the black hole at its center, the European Southern Observatory (OES) reported on Tuesday.
Although previous studies have shown that inactive galaxies become active after a few years, this is the first time that the process, in this case the “awakening” of a black hole, has been observed in real time, the authors of the work say.
The observations were carried out, in particular, using the VLT telescope at OES in Chile, and the findings of the study carried out by astronomers were published in the specialized journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
At the end of 2019, astronomers noticed that the previously unremarkable galaxy SDSS1335+0728 suddenly began to shine brighter.
To understand why, the team used archival data and new observations from several space-based and ground-based observatories, including the VLT, to study how the brightness of a galaxy located 300 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo was changing.
By comparing data obtained before and after December 2019, astronomers found that SDSS1335+0728 emits much more light.
This increase in brightness, which continues today, has led to the galaxy SDSS1335+0728 being classified as having an “active galactic nucleus”, a compact and bright region powered by a black hole (a dense dark body in the universe from which nothing escapes, not even light ) with a huge mass in the center.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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