Key Points
- The supermassive black hole 1ES 1927+654 is located 100 million light-years away.
- Its corona disappeared in 2018, reformed, and has displayed unusual X-ray flashes.
- The flashes increased from 18-minute to seven-minute intervals over two years.
- A spinning white dwarf near the event horizon is the leading explanation for the phenomenon.
Astronomers have been captivated by a supermassive black hole, 1ES 1927+654, located 100 million light-years away and exhibiting unprecedented phenomena. First noted in 2018, its corona—a plasma cloud surrounding the black hole—disappeared unexpectedly, only to reassemble months later. New observations reveal a strange occurrence: steadily increasing X-ray flashes emanating from the black hole.
The flashes, first detected with the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton observatory, oscillated every 18 minutes, eventually accelerating to seven-minute intervals over two years. Such rapid variability in X-ray emissions from a black hole has never been observed before. Researchers believe the most plausible explanation is a spinning white dwarf—a highly compact remnant of a dead star—circling dangerously close to the black hole’s event horizon.
If correct, the white dwarf, with a mass about one-tenth that of the Sun, is precariously orbiting within a few million miles of the event horizon, where the gravitational pull is nearly inescapable. The white dwarf’s proximity could explain the increasing frequency of the X-ray flashes. While the black hole’s immense gravity drags the white dwarf inward, the star appears to shed its outer layers, providing a kick-back effect that keeps it from crossing the event horizon entirely.
This hypothesis offers exciting prospects for future study, particularly with the launch of NASA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) in the 2030s. The LISA is designed to detect gravitational waves emitted by systems like this. If gravitational waves confirm the presence of a white dwarf, they will provide crucial insights into the extreme physics of black hole environments.
The findings, presented at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society and published in Nature, underscore the need for continued monitoring. As the research team suggests, this system could hold even more surprises, offering a rare glimpse into the behavior of objects on the brink of destruction.
