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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

How to weigh a black hole: monitor its fireworks

The dusty disk around a black hole flashes on a characteristic schedule, offering a clue to its mass.
Gif of light flickering around a yellow and orange disk.

The flickering light from matter spiralling into a supermassive black hole (artist’s impression) is correlated with the black hole’s mass. Credit: Mark A. Garlick/Simons Foundation

Astrophysicists might have found a way to estimate the masses of supermassive black holes by observing their feeding frenzies.

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Nature 596, 321 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02202-5

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