A supermassive black hole far out in space has revealed what happens when it “overeats”—by blasting out huge amounts of excess material at nearly a third the speed of light.
This dramatic discovery was made by astronomers at the University of Leicester and has just been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Black holes are regions in space where gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape.
While small black holes form from the collapse of massive stars, supermassive black holes, which are millions or even billions of times the mass of the Sun, sit at the centers of most galaxies.
These cosmic giants grow by pulling in gas and dust that spirals into them over time.
The black hole in question lies in the distant Seyfert galaxy PG1211+143, about 1.2 billion light years from Earth. Using the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory, the University of Leicester team has been observing this galaxy for more than two decades.
In 2014, they witnessed something remarkable: a massive inflow of material into the black hole—equivalent to at least 10 times the mass of Earth.
This wasn’t just any inflow. The incoming matter formed a ring around the black hole and was detected through a slight shift in its light caused by the black hole’s extreme gravity—a phenomenon known as gravitational redshift. But things got even more exciting just days later.
The black hole couldn’t handle all the material it had pulled in, so it expelled some of it in a powerful outflow. This outflow was moving at 27% the speed of light, or about 80,000 kilometers per second. It was so hot—millions of degrees—that it glowed in X-rays. This burst of energy was driven by radiation pressure as the matter got squeezed and heated during its journey toward the black hole.
This outflow, or wind, is not just an impressive show of power. It also plays an important role in shaping the host galaxy. These winds can blow away gas and prevent new stars from forming, influencing how galaxies evolve over time.
The discovery is part of a long-running series of observations. Back in 2001, the Leicester team first spotted fast-moving outflows from PG1211+143, a surprise at the time. Since then, they’ve found such winds are common in active galaxies with brightly feeding black holes.
By watching these feeding and expelling cycles, scientists are learning how black holes grow. With help from other telescopes like NASA’s Swift Observatory, researchers hope to continue monitoring these cosmic giants and better understand their place in the story of our universe.
Source: University of Leicester.
