Scientists say black hole suddenly gone dark and then reappeared again

The scientists at MIT recently noted that a black hole suddenly turned dark and then reappeared again as it swiftly changed brightness in a way that would normally be expected to take millions of years. According to an MIT press note, the scientist said that there is no obvious reason for the behaviour, which has never been seen before. However, they noted that the ‘mind-boggling’ change may be the result of a stray star that disrupted the black hole before it could come back again. 

Erin Kara, who is an assistant professor of physics at MIT, said, “We expect that luminosity changes this big should vary on timescales of many thousands to millions of years. But in this object, we saw it change by 10,000 over a year, and it even changed by a factor of 100 in eight hours, which is just totally unheard of and really mind-boggling”. 

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The astronomers at MIT informed that the black hole can be seen by their ‘corona’, which is found around their edge or event horizon. Thy further said that the corona is made up of high-energy particles that shine brightly across the universe, and are heated to intense temperatures. As per the press note, the scientists believe that the corona was destroyed, with the objects falling into the black hole itself. They speculate that this may have led to the sudden and inexplicable dip in brightness. 

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Corona disappears for the first time ever 

The scientists at MIT observed that the black hole, over time, managed to pull the material back to its edge to form new corona, which was almost as bright as it was before. Furthermore, the astronomers noted that the sudden change could have happened when a star fell into the black hole’s gravity and bounced around the swirling disc that surrounded it, causing destruction as it went. They said that the particles would then have fallen into the black hole, leading it to go dark. 

Kara said, “This seems to be the first time we’ve ever seen a corona first of all disappear, but then also rebuild itself, and we’re watching this in real-time”. 

She added, “This will be really important to understanding how a black hole’s corona is heated and powered in the first place”. 

(Image: MIT/Press release)

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