Space is infinite and hides many secrets yet to be discovered, but few of them have given as much to talk about as the feared black holes, an astronomical phenomenon with a gravitational force so powerful that not even light can escape them. Thus, they trap all types of matter in their path, growing in the process.
We know that black holes are remains of ancient giant stars known as supernovae, which inhabit any galaxy and, when their core shut down, have collapsed. However, experts still their origin is not entirely clearor at least they have obtained little information about it.
Einstein already noticed them and introduced in his Theory of Relativity a series of predictions about its reachsome of which have been confirmed even decades later.
For all this, each encounter with a black hole in any of its forms is an exciting opportunity to observe and study it, hoping understand a little more about their behavior each time.
AN EVENT NEVER SEEN BEFORE
Recently, a group of astronomers noticed in real time how a supermassive black hole began to form in a seemingly inactive galaxy.
This galaxy is located 300 million light years from ours, and was located for the first time in 2019, when a telescope from the Palomar Observatory in California suddenly detected an unusual glow. But it was not until some time later, when following up on this situation, that scientists realized the importance of what they were witnessing.
What is particular about this new sighting compared to other observations of black holes is that the exact moment of its formation in the nucleus of a galaxy, when the hole begins to feed on gas and matter for the first time that you find around you.
This is what a black hole sounds like
Now, what is known as SDSS1335+0728 is classified as an “active galactic nucleus” (AGN) because it is powered by a massive black hole that makes it glow more and more every day, radiating light in ultraviolet, optical and infrared wavelengths, and even emitting X-rays since last February.
Understanding why this has happened would offer very valuable information, and would allow us, among other things, to to know if our galaxy could undergo a similar transformation in the future.
WHY IS THE GALAXY LIGHTING UP?
Despite the conclusions that this study has presented, the event requires more observation time in order to analyze other possible explanations for this unusual and never-before-seen increase in light.
Experts do not rule out the possibility that it is, in fact, a totally unknown phenomenon until now by the scientific community. But there are also other astronomical events that produce sudden brightnesses in a galaxy.
An example of this is tidal alteration events, although these They usually have a much shorter duration from that observed in SDSS1335+0728. Therefore, if this were a tidal disturbance event, it would be the longest ever observed.
In order to determine it and shed light on this whole matter, the team of experts has the data from different astronomical observatoriesincluding some from NASA.
