Black hole 'X-ray Nova' (Photo : Reuters)
After sleeping for almost 26 years, a giant black hole just opened up and released gallons of X-rays.
This unlikely phenomenon was noticed on June 15 when the researchers at NASA were doing their routine astronomical observations.
This black hole is identified as "X-ray Nova," which loosely means a sudden increment in the luminosity of a star. This star was born out of the binary star system which was present in the constellation Cygnus, according to NBC.
Scientists are saying that the outburst of the X-rays was caused after some celestial material fell in to this black hole. NASA's Swift satellite was the first one to catch this burst. Japan's MAXI (Monitor of all sky x-ray image) was the second one to catch this phenomena, according to NY City Today.
The principle investigator at NASA, Neil Gehrels said that this is a pretty rare occurrence in the history of space observations. He also added that NASA is trying to capture everything which is being spewed out from this black hole; from gamma rays to radio waves.
Binary System V404 Cygni is responsible for this eruption, according to NASA. It is made up of smaller stars which orbit a black hole that is 10 times the mass of the Sun. The orbit period of these stars is 6.5 days, implying that these stars orbit 10 times faster than the orbit of Mercury around the Sun.
As these stars orbit so closely to the black hole, the huge body pulls the gases away from the stars, thus making the stars take the shape of a disc.
