In a first, astronomers watch a black hole's corona disappear, then reappear
Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 12:40
in Astronomy & Space
It seems the universe has an odd sense of humor. While a crown-encrusted virus has run roughshod over the world, another entirely different corona about 100 million light years from Earth has mysteriously disappeared. For the first time, astronomers have watched as a supermassive black hole's own corona, the ultrabright, billion-degree ring of high-energy particles that encircles a black hole's event horizon, was abruptly destroyed.