What does the birth of a black hole look like? Well, back in 2019 astronomers just so happened to catch that very thing in action.
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00:00What does the birth of a black hole look like?
00:06Well, back in 2019, astronomers just so happened to catch that very thing in action.
00:11The galaxy where it all started is called SDSS 1335 plus 0728 and it resides some 300
00:18million light years away.
00:20And while observing it, the astronomers say it suddenly lit up and in the years since
00:24it has begun glowing even brighter.
00:26That means the black hole is devouring everything around it, as a black hole that is not consuming
00:30material is pretty much invisible.
00:32That's because when a black hole eats, it creates great gravitational forces and heat,
00:37all of which can be detected by our instrumentation.
00:39The supermassive black hole in this scenario is around 1.5 million times the mass of our
00:44sun.
00:45So what caused this black hole to suddenly wake up?
00:47Well, astronomers aren't exactly sure.
00:49What they believed happened was that its surroundings finally reached a critical mass, essentially
00:53flipping a switch and awakening the supermassive black hole.
00:56With the researchers saying about their investigation, in the case of SDSS 1335 plus 0728, we were
01:03able to observe the awakening of the massive black hole, which suddenly started to feast
01:07on gas available in its surroundings, becoming very bright.