Monster black hole might have executed a magnetic 'flip'
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X-ray emissions disappeared and then came back again due to changes in the environment, a study suggests.
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A black hole's magnetic field could have flipped in front of our eyes.
The story begins with 1ES 1927+654, a galaxy that stopped emitting X-rays for a few months, then resumed and increased
The prospective black hole observations are a one-of-a-kind situation that can be seen from 236 million light-years distant.
In a NASA statement, study lead author Sibasish Laha, a research scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said
"This occurrence represents the first time we've witnessed X-rays fading out totally while the other wavelengths brighten."
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According to the announcement, if scientists can establish that the outburst was caused by a black hole at the galaxy's centre shifting its magnetic field
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the event could assist astrophysicists comprehend how such a flip affects the black hole's environment.
A supermassive black hole is lodged at the centre of the Milky Way (and most other giant galaxies like it); the black hole pulls matter in toward its centre
As matter is pulled inside, it collects in an accretion disc around the black hole, then warms up and emits light (in visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths).