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Shocking Discovery Suggests Something Strange Happening Close To Recently Discovered Black Hole

Scientists recently found something unusual near a supermassive black hole called 1ES 1927+654. This black hole became extremely bright in 2018, and in 2022, researchers noticed a strange repeating signal called a quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO). The signal started with an 18-minute interval and shortened to just 7.1 minutes over two years. This has never been seen before and challenges existing theories about how black holes behave.

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are gigantic objects found at the centers of most galaxies, including our own. They are millions or billions of times heavier than the Sun and pull in matter from their surroundings. Scientists have been studying these black holes for years, but a new discovery is making them rethink how these objects behave.

What’s the Big News?

A team of scientists led by Masterson has found something new and unusual happening around a supermassive black hole called 1ES 1927+654. This black hole became extremely bright in 2018, giving off bursts of light in optical, ultraviolet (UV), and X-ray wavelengths. Then, in 2022, researchers discovered something very strange: a repeating signal called a quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO).

What Is a QPO?

A QPO is like a cosmic heartbeat. It’s a signal that repeats over and over, like a ticking clock. For this black hole, the signal had a period of 18 minutes. This means something was happening close to the black hole every 18 minutes. Over time, this period shortened to just 7.1 minutes, which has never been seen before in supermassive black holes.

Evolution of the QPO frequency over time. The black points show the observed QPO frequency and 1 σ error bars, obtained by fitting an additional Lorentzian for the QPO. The colored lines show the expected evolution of an extreme mass ratio companion under GR alone, assuming a circular orbit ( e = 0 ) and companion masses ranging from 0.1-20 M ⊙ . The color bar shows the mass distribution. The GR model was chosen to match the QPO frequency in February 2023, as this was the data with the most significant detection and the lowest uncertainty on the QPO frequency. GR alone from an orbiting companion cannot account for the frequency evolution seen in 1ES 1927+654.

Why Is This Important?

This discovery is special for several reasons:

  1. Close to the Black Hole: The signal comes from very close to the black hole, much closer than where similar events usually occur.
  2. Changing Period: The QPO’s period didn’t stay the same—it got shorter over two years. This kind of change is very rare and hard to explain.
  3. Challenges Current Theories: The usual explanations for such signals don’t fully match what’s happening here.

What Could Be Causing This?

Scientists have a few ideas, but none of them explain everything perfectly:

  • Orbiting Companion: There might be a small object, like a star, orbiting the black hole. Its orbit could be shrinking, causing the repeating signal to speed up.
  • Disk Instabilities: The black hole’s surrounding material (called the accretion disk) might be behaving in an unusual way, creating these repeating signals.
  • Magnetic Fields: Powerful magnetic fields around the black hole could also play a role in generating the signal.

Why Is It Hard to Explain?

Most of these ideas don’t fit perfectly with the observations. For example, if there’s an orbiting object, it would need to lose energy very quickly to explain the faster QPO. But this kind of rapid energy loss usually happens only if the object is transferring material to the black hole, which hasn’t been seen here.

What’s Next?

Scientists are planning to keep a close eye on this black hole to gather more data. They also hope that future tools, like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), can help. LISA is a space-based observatory that will detect gravitational waves—ripples in space caused by massive objects moving. If there’s a small object orbiting this black hole, LISA might be able to detect its gravitational waves.

Why This Matters

This discovery is important for several reasons:

  1. Understanding Black Holes: It helps scientists learn more about how supermassive black holes interact with their surroundings.
  2. Gravitational Waves: If orbiting objects around black holes are common, they could be a major source of gravitational waves, which are a new way of studying the universe.
  3. Testing Theories: This QPO doesn’t match existing models perfectly, so scientists will need to come up with new ideas to explain it.

A New Chapter in Space Research

Supermassive black holes are some of the most mysterious objects in the universe. They shape the galaxies around them and influence how stars and planets form. Discoveries like the QPO in 1ES 1927+654 are exciting because they show us how much we still have to learn.

By studying these signals and events, scientists are uncovering new clues about the universe’s biggest mysteries. The more we learn, the closer we get to understanding how the cosmos works.

Reference: Megan Masterson, Erin Kara, Christos Panagiotou, William N. Alston, Joheen Chakraborty, Kevin Burdge, Claudio Ricci, Sibasish Laha, Iair Arcavi, Riccardo Arcodia, S. Bradley Cenko, Andrew C. Fabian, Javier A. García, Margherita Giustini, Adam Ingram, Peter Kosec, Michael Loewenstein, Eileen T. Meyer, Giovanni Miniutti, Ciro Pinto, Ronald A. Remillard, Dev R. Sadaula, Onic I. Shuvo, Benny Trakhtenbrot, Jingyi Wang, "Millihertz Oscillations Near the Innermost Orbit of a Supermassive Black Hole", Nature, 2024. https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.01581


Technical terms 

  1. Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH)

    • A huge black hole at the center of a galaxy, millions or billions of times heavier than the Sun.

  2. Accretion Disk

    • A spinning disk of gas, dust, and other matter that surrounds a black hole and slowly falls into it.

  3. Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO)

    • A repeating signal, like a ticking clock, caused by regular movements of material or objects near a black hole.

  4. Gravitational Radius

    • The distance around a black hole where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.

  5. Quasi-Periodic Eruptions (QPEs)

    • Bright flashes of light that occur repeatedly over time, usually further away from the black hole.

  6. Orbital Decay

    • The process where an object, like a star or planet, spirals closer to another massive object (like a black hole) due to loss of energy.

  7. Gravitational Waves

    • Invisible ripples in space caused by massive objects moving, like stars or black holes orbiting each other.

  8. Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)

    • A future space-based observatory designed to detect gravitational waves in space.

  9. Magnetic Fields

    • Invisible forces created by charged particles, which can influence how matter moves around black holes.

  10. Period Evolution

  • The way the timing of a repeating signal (like a QPO) changes over time, such as getting faster or slower.


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