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"Old Faithful" Black Hole


"Old Faithful" Black Hole Animation
Credit: NASA/GSFC; Walt Feimer/Allied Signal

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Scientists observing a disk of matter surrounding a black hole in our galaxy have discovered that the disk is periodically disrupted and hurled outward in opposite directions from the black hole, in jets moving at nearly the speed of light. The black hole replenishes the disk by pulling hot gas from the surface of a nearby "companion" star, and then undergoes another disruption, repeating the sequence at half-hour intervals

Read the full NASA Press Release.

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"Old Faithful" Black Hole Animation

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This page is maintained by the RXTE GOF and was last modified on Wednesday, 24-Aug-2022 11:10:28 EDT.