Extragalactic Old Faithful : Scientists Discover Galaxy That Erupts Regularly
KEY POINTS
The galaxy s next outbursts are expected to happen in April and August
It s possible that the events are caused by a tidal disruption event
A team of researchers discovered a galaxy with a rather odd behavior: it emits flares at regular intervals. What could be causing the galaxy s flares?
Galaxies that have unusually active centers are classified by astronomers as active galaxies. NASA says these centers can even produce more energy than all of the stars in the host galaxy combined.
In November of 2014, the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) spotted an outburst event, called ASASSN-14ko, in active galaxy ESO 253-3, which is 570 million light-years away from the Earth. At the time, scientists thought it was a supernova explosion, a one-time outburst.
From supernova to something much more intriguing at the core of galaxy 253-3
January 13, 2021
On 14 November 2014, a bright flash flagged the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, or ASAS-SN a global network of 20 telescopes managed at Ohio State University in the U.S. The flash originated in galaxy ESO 253-3, located 570 million light-years away.
The sudden burst of energy was examined by astronomers and categorized as a likely supernova and assigned the event designation ASASSN-14ko. Six years later, Anna Payne, a NASA Graduate Fellow at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, discovered it was something much different.
A Distant Galaxy Is Flaring With Strange Regularity, And Scientists Have Figured Out Why
13 JANUARY 2021
Roughly every 114 days, almost like clockwork, a galaxy 570 million light-years away lights up like a firework. Since at least 2014, our observatories have recorded this strange behaviour; now, astronomers have put the pieces together to figure out why.
In the centre of the spiral galaxy, named ESO 253-G003, a supermassive black hole is being orbited by a star that, every 114 days, swings close enough for some of its material to be slurped up, causing a brilliant flare of light across multiple wavelengths. Then, it moves away, surviving to be slurped again on its next close approach.
| UPDATED: 20:48, Wed, Jan 13, 2021
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Data derived from space agency NASA s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), has allowed black hole researchers to examine the reliably repeated outbursts of an event dubbed ASASSN-14ko. This involves the violent eruption of light predictably flashing roughly every 114 days.