Cosmic Black Hole Volcano Erupts After 100 Million Years
Astronomers have just witnessed an extraordinary phenomenon in the depths of the universe. A supermassive black hole that has been “dormant” for approximately 100 million years has suddenly sprung back to life with a powerful outburst, creating a plasma structure extending one million light-years.
The black hole, located at the heart of galaxy J1007+3540, has been dubbed a “cosmic volcano,” due to its dramatically reawakening after a very long period of quite.
Repeating Life Cycle
Research published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society utilized data from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) in India. Radio scans revealed a “gravitational tug-of-war” between the black hole’s jets and the surrounding galaxy.