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Spectacularly rapid and regular X-ray eruptions observed from an active galaxy

A galaxy has been seen producing strong, regular bursts of X-rays that recur on timescales of hours. The eruptions imply that the matter flowing onto the galaxy’s central black hole undergoes repeated restructuring.
  1. Bożena Czerny

    1. Bożena Czerny is in the Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland.

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Writing in Nature, Miniutti et al.1 report a stunning phenomenon unlike anything observed before in a galaxy: almost-periodic eruptions that increase the X-ray emission from the host galaxy by a factor of up to 100, and which last only about an hour. Even more remarkably, these galactic hiccups recur on timescales of hours — raising questions about the mechanism that could produce such rapidly repeating events.

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Nature 573, 354-355 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02652-y

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