Nearby black hole is feeble and unpredictable
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - 11:32
in Astronomy & Space
A decade-long study by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals that the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Andromeda galaxy was in a very dim, or quiet, state before 2006. However, on January 6, 2006, the black hole became more than a hundred times brighter, suggesting an outburst of X-rays. This was the first time such an event had been seen from a supermassive black hole in the nearby, local universe.