Two of NASA’s space telescopes have spotted something very unusual about supermassive black hole Markarian 335.
NASA observed something it has never seen before – a black hole’s corona launching away from the supermassive black hole, followed by a massive pulse of X-ray energy being “spewed out”.
Blastr.com reports:
“This is the first time we have been able to link the launching of the corona to a flare,” Dan Wilkins, of Saint Mary’s University, said. “This will help us understand how supermassive black holes power some of the brightest objects in the universe.”
NuSTAR’s principal investigator, Fiona Harrison, noted that the nature of the energetic source is “mysterious,” but added that the ability to actually record the event should provide some clues about the black hole’s size and structure, along with (hopefully) some fresh intel on how black holes function. Luckily for us, this black hole is still 324 million light-years away.
So, no matter what strange things it’s doing, it shouldn’t have any effect on our corner of the universe.