A SUPERMASSIVE BURP

In 2018, astronomers revealed something rather unusual: a few years earlier they’d seen a supermassive black hole appear to ‘burp’ twice. Called SDSS J1354+1327, the galaxy containing the black hole is located about 800 million light years from Earth. On two occasions, 100,000 years apart, it expelled bursts of high-energy particles in the form of bright light. The astronomers didn’t see the burps in action, but they did see two emissions on either side of the galaxy that appeared to be the remnants of them. They’re thought to have happened about a million years ago. But why? The answer comes from a nearby companion galaxy. It looks like the two galaxies collided in the past, and they’re still linked by streams of stars and gas. The black hole ate material, namely extremely hot gas, from the companion galaxy on two separate occasions, and in the process flared up and released matter. Many other black holes have been known to belch too.