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Burping black holes

What鈥檚 a feast without the occasional belch? A team led by CU Boulder Assistant Professor Julie Comerford explored another consequence of the collision between two galaxies. The researchers found evidence that the supermassive black hole sitting at the heart of a galaxy called J1354 had turned on and off not once, but twice鈥攅ach time ejecting jets of hot gas far into space. The cause seemed to be another galaxy that had strayed too close to J1354. In the process, J1354鈥檚 black hole gobbled up material from the 鈥渃ompanion鈥 galaxy in two separate events over the span of about 100,000 years. 鈥淲e are seeing this object feast, burp and nap, and then feast, burp and nap again,鈥 Comerford says.

Burping black hole

Principal investigator
Julie Comerford

Funding
NASA (through Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center and Space Telescope Science Institute)

Collaboration + support
R. Scott Barrows, Francisco M眉ller-S谩nchez and Rebecca Nevin; Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences; Princeton University; Trinity University; California Institute of Technology