Astronomers believe that an object with the mass of the planet Mercury was devoured by the black hole about 50 years ago. The event released a torrent X-rays that flooded out in all directions. Some of those X-rays collided with nearby gas clouds, and were reflected in our direction.
Chandra imaged the same region for three years in a row, and saw that the shape and brightness of the clouds changed matching theoretical predictions made by astronomers. Since X-ray emissions are stopped by the Earth’s atmosphere, and we didn’t have an X-ray observatory in space 50 years ago, nobody was able to see the original event. All we get to see is the echo.
Original Source: Chandra News Release
Many people think of the James Webb Space Telescope as a sort of Hubble 2.…
On November 26th, 2018, NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight)…
Black holes are incredible powerhouses, but they might generate even more energy thanks to an…
According to the United Nations, the world produces about 430 million metric tons (267 U.S.…
As we saw with JWST, it's difficult and expensive to launch large telescope apertures, relying…
Voyager 1 was launched waaaaaay back in 1977. I would have been 4 years old…