July 4 () –
British astronomers have discovered one of the most dramatic “ignitions” of a black hole ever seen. reports the RAS (Royal Astronomical Society).
J221951 is one of the most luminous transients (astrophysical objects that change their brightness in a short period of time) ever recorded.
It was discovered by Dr Samantha Oates, an astronomer at the University of Birmingham, and her team in September 2019 while searching for electromagnetic light from a gravitational wave event. The team was using the Ultraviolet and Optical Telescope aboard the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to search for a kilonova, the sign of a neutron star merging with another neutron star or black hole. A kilonova usually appears blue, then fades and becomes redder over a time scale of days. What they found instead was something even more unusual: J221951. The transient appeared blue, but did not change color or fade rapidly like a kilonova would..
Several telescopes were used to track J221951 and determine its nature, including NASA’s Swift/UVOT and Hubble Space Telescope, the South African Large Telescope, and ESO facilities such as the Very Large Telescope and the GROND instrument on the MPG/ ESO of 2.2 meters at the La Silla Observatory.
A spectrum of J221951 taken with the Hubble Space Telescope ruled out the association of J221951 with the gravitational wave event. By examining the light spectrum of J221951, Dr. Oates and her team were able to determine that the source is about 10 billion light-years away, in contrast to the gravitational wave signal that was detected less than 500 billion years away. distance light. The fact that it shines so brightly at such a great distance makes J221951 one of the most luminous transients ever detected.
Evidence suggests that J221951 arose as a result of a supermassive black hole feeding very rapidly on surrounding material. A red galaxy was observed at the location of J221951 before its detection, and the location of J221951 is consistent with the center of the galaxy, where a massive black hole would naturally reside.
It began to brighten very suddenly, around 10 months before the initial detection, which means that the black hole began to feed very rapidly after being quiet for a while. The ultraviolet spectrum shows absorption characteristics consistent with material pushed outward by a large release of energy. This, combined with its great luminosity, makes this one of the most dramatic “ignitions” of a black hole ever seen.
The team has identified two possible mechanisms that could explain this extreme feeding from a supermassive black hole. The first is that it may have been caused by a tidal disruption event: the disruption of a star as it passes close to the supermassive black hole at the center of its galaxy. The second is that it may have been produced by an active galactic nucleus changing from inactive to active. J221951 would then be the sign of an inactive black hole in the center of the host galaxy. it has begun to feed on material from an accretion disk.
The authors present their findings at the National Astronomy Meeting in Cardiff. The work will also be published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
