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Black holes are enigmatic and insatiable forces, consuming everything that dares to come too close. However, their impact goes beyond just destruction—they are responsible for some of the most massive cosmic explosions, shoot boomerang-like jets, and even form their own planets.
They are also the source of some bizarre phenomena. What happens to the matter black holes devour when they die? Why did a black hole unexpectedly flash in 2019 when scientists claim they shouldn’t be able to? New revelations may soon provide mind-blowing explanations.
10. A Star Transformed Into Cosmic Spaghetti
In 2019, a star met its end. One half was sent flying into space, while a black hole shredded the other half into long strands, devouring them in the process. This event gave rise to the quirky term 'death by spaghettification.' While strange, it was remarkable for reasons far beyond just needing some pasta sauce.
When a star reaches the end of its life, it releases a burst of energy known as a tidal disruption event. In this instance, it was the closest tidal event to Earth, located 215 million light-years away, and also the clearest. Once astronomers detected it, they observed in incredible detail, for months, as the black hole tore the star apart.
The destruction provided a clue about the origin of tidal flashes. While the full picture remains unclear, it is evident that these flashes are linked to debris escaping from a star nearing its end.
9. This Black Hole Sends Boomerangs Into Space
About 17,000 light-years from Earth, a black hole is devouring a star. The system is known as XTE J1550-564. Initially, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Black holes feeding on stars is nothing new. But in 2020, researchers reexamined old X-ray images of XTE J1550-564 and noticed something peculiar.
To unravel the mystery of the unusual data, the information was processed through a computer simulation. It showed how some of the light attempted to break free. This in itself was not strange, as light trapped in the accretion disk (the swirling dust around a black hole) can still escape. But the light from XTE J1550-564 exhibited an odd behavior.
Normally, when light escapes successfully, it bounces off the disk before shooting into space in a straight line. However, in this case, the beams initially curved back toward the black hole. When the light finally reflected off the disk, it resembled boomerangs. This strange occurrence had never been observed before or since.
8. Black Holes Conceal Themselves in Plain Sight
Certain black holes are cloaked in dark dust. These so-called cocooned black holes are difficult to detect, but it's believed there may be many more of them lurking in the cosmos.
In 2020, researchers scrutinized the Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S) image in search of additional cocooned black holes. This X-ray image provides a detailed view of a portion of the southern sky. Many objects in the CDF-S had already been cataloged, including 28 points identified as either galaxies or black holes without cocoon-like coverings.
But those 28 were impostors.
But it didn't take long for the truth to emerge. When the chart was compared with optical and infrared images of the same area, the bright signals unmistakably matched those of black holes surrounded by cocoons. The X-ray data had been unable to penetrate the dust’s dimming effect, which explained why they appeared to be other types of celestial objects. This discovery also implies that many similar records, like the CDF-S, could be filled with black holes hiding in plain sight.
7. An Extraordinary Trio
Back in 1983, astronomers considered NGC 6240 to be a strange anomaly. The galaxy had an odd shape and a peculiar infrared glow. Based on the available knowledge at the time, it was concluded that NGC 6240 was actually the result of two colliding galaxies. The unusual shape and intense brightness were indicative of this cosmic collision.
Each of the galaxies had its own supermassive black hole. By the time these black holes were observed, they were found to be closely positioned at the heart of NGC 6240.
In 2019, astronomers took a closer look at the galaxies with more advanced equipment. To their astonishment, they discovered a third black hole at the center. The astronomers from the '80s likely missed it because this third black hole was dormant while the other two were actively consuming matter. Regardless of the reason, its presence hinted that the merger involved three galaxies, not just two.
A galactic triple collision is extraordinarily rare, but not entirely impossible. What sets this event apart is the proximity of the three black holes. They orbit each other within a compact region of just 3,260 light-years, and the active pair are only 645 light-years apart.
6. A Clue That Sheds Light on the Oldest Black Holes
The earliest black holes have long been a mystery. Believed to be the remnants of the first stars that perished, no explanation could account for why some of these black holes grew into such massive entities. When one was discovered in 2020, it was found to have a mass 1 billion times that of our Sun. But its exceptional size wasn't due to its early formation. Instead, it offered a compelling clue about how it grew so large.
This black hole has six galaxies trapped in its gravitational grip. The arrangement resembles a spider's web, with filaments connecting the black hole to the galaxies. Wherever the filaments intersect, the galaxies thrive. The material feeding them, likely gas, is channeled through these threads. Similarly, the web can enlarge black holes by nurturing them in a gas-rich environment.
5. The Largest (And Strangest) Space Explosion
In 2019, something from deep space shook the Earth. Two observatories picked up the gravitational waves and pinpointed their source. What they uncovered was bizarre, record-breaking, and simply impossible.
The signal, named GW190521, originated from a collision of two black holes that occurred 7 billion years ago. This cataclysmic event created a single, larger black hole. Interestingly, one of the original black holes was probably itself the result of a merger between other black holes. But this cosmic pile-up wasn’t the only strange part of the story.
The explosion was the most powerful burst ever observed in space. Its energy matched that of a million billion atomic bombs exploding every second for 13.8 billion years. The final black hole was 142 times the mass of the Sun, classifying it as an intermediate-sized black hole. This was groundbreaking because black holes of this size were previously only theoretical. But one of the original black holes presented an even greater enigma.
Weighing in at roughly 85 solar masses, this black hole defied scientific laws by existing in a mass range thought to be impossible. To form, it would need a star between 60 and 130 times the mass of the Sun. The issue is that when such massive stars die, they explode as supernovas, not as black holes.
4. Something Annihilated a Black Hole’s Corona
Things were going smoothly for a while. A galaxy called 1ES 1927+654 revolved around a black hole, just as most galaxies do. The black hole was visible because of its corona, a ring of hot particles that orbits many supermassive black holes. There was nothing unusual about it.
1ES 1927+654, however, didn't like being overlooked. In 2018, it presented astronomers with a mystery that remains unsolved. For an unknown reason, the black hole’s corona suddenly flared up, becoming forty times brighter than usual. Then, just as quickly, the flare disappeared.
The galaxy got its attention. Telescopes from around the globe focused on 1ES 1927+654, eager to witness more. They were not disappointed. Within less than a year, the corona began to fade at an alarming rate—one that should have taken millennia. While experts were caught off guard by the swift change, they suspected that this wasn’t just a faster-than-usual life cycle. Something was destroying the corona.
One theory suggests that a star collided with the black hole. The star shattered like an egg, triggering the initial flare. The impact disturbed the black hole’s magnetic field, the very force that held the corona in place. With its stability compromised, the corona swiftly disintegrated, causing the black hole to grow darker.
3. Black Holes Release Their Victims as Curves
When Stephen Hawking announced that black holes eventually die, the scientific community was buzzing with curiosity about the life cycle of these cosmic giants. As the leading authority on black holes, Hawking proposed that they evaporate. But this revelation led to an intriguing, seemingly unsolvable question.
What happens to all the material a black hole has consumed when it reaches the end of its life and disintegrates?
Mathematicians grabbed their whiteboard markers and ran some calculations. They concluded that the stolen 'information' simply vanishes, violating countless fundamental laws of physics. Another hypothesis suggested that this information could leak back into space in the form of curves, but no one could definitively prove either theory.
Recently, physicists used advanced computers and mathematical tools to resolve this paradox. They simulated realistic black holes, accelerated their evolution, and carefully observed their final moments. Remarkably, the simulation supported one of the theories: as the black holes neared their end, the lost information leaked out as curves.
2. They Have Blanets
Planets are formed from the swirling dust surrounding a star, but blanets arise from the dust rings orbiting a black hole. Some blanets resemble Earth, rocky and nearly ten times larger, while others are gas giants like Neptune.
Blanets have yet to be discovered.
A study in 2020 suggested that these mysterious worlds must exist. Ice, an essential component in planet formation, works as a binding agent, helping dust particles stick together. As a clump gathers enough gravity, it attracts more particles and eventually becomes a planet.
Certain black holes have a 'snow line,' a boundary where conditions are cold enough for ice and blanets to form. In the Milky Way, the environment is so conducive that thousands of blanets likely orbit the black hole at the center of our galaxy.
1. The Flash Mystery
Do you remember GW190521, the largest and strangest space explosion ever recorded? About a month later, another event occurred in the same area, and researchers are unsure if the two occurrences are linked. The black holes involved in the collision lacked the typical fiery coronas, so the crash should have been invisible.
But there was a massive flash of light.
To unravel the mystery, scientists introduced a quasar into the equation. Quasars are enormous black holes that emit powerful energy bursts. However, this flash was too extraordinary, even for a quasar.
The theory suggests that the two smaller black holes became trapped in the gas ring surrounding their supermassive counterpart. Eventually, the two merged and created the GW190521 signal. The merger's force sent the newly formed black hole through the ring, disturbing the gas and sparking a delayed flare.
This theory explains why the flash occurred 34 days after the GW190521 signal, though nothing is confirmed. There's an equal possibility that the two events are unrelated.
