The Guardian ·
‘Very messy eaters’: scientists solve the mystery of when black holes ‘burp’
The astronomical bodies fire off powerful jets in two distinct phases in their feeding cycle, researchers discover
Scientists have solved the mystery of when black holes “burp” – when the astronomical bodies launch jets after feeding on stars, blasting material enormous distances in space.
Black holes are objects so densely compact that beyond a certain point their gravity is too strong for light and matter to escape. This boundary of no return is known as the event horizon – the point at which escaping would require something to travel faster than the speed of light.
Despite their reputation as cosmic sinkholes, black holes are “actually very messy eaters”, said Dr Adelle Goodwin, an astrophysicist at Curtin University in Western Australia.
