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.