The black hole spitting jet beams like a bizarre top

The year 2019 has been important for black holes. To begin, we saw a for the first time. We also discovered 83 of them at the edge of our universe. Not much.

Recent research finds out more about the incredibly dense and space-time bad boys of the universe. Understand this: While most black holes are supposed to "spin" (thanks to the dust and gas space in the orbital movements around the black hole), scientists have discovered a black hole that makes them things a little differently.

V404 Cygni is a binary system of the constellation Cygnus. At its center is a black hole that is absorbing a low-mass star nearby.

Astronomers at the International Radioastronomy Research Center in Perth, Western Australia, noticed that the black hole of V404 Cygni spewed light beams of matter into space. It's relatively normal, which was not normal, it was the direction in which the material was sprayed. Due to the way the black holes turn normally, the material tends to spread in the same direction. This time he was sprayed from different angles. The jets seem to spin quickly.

You can see it in the animation below. The conclusion: this black hole turns a little differently from the others.

"It's one of the most extraordinary black hole systems I've ever encountered," explained Professor James Miller-Jones, lead author of a recently published study. in Nature.

"Like many black holes, it feeds on a nearby star, moves the gas away from the star and forms a disc of matter that surrounds the black hole and that winds up under it. effect of gravity.

"What's different in V404 Cygni is that we think the material disk and the black hole are misaligned.

"This seems to cause oscillations of the inner part of the disc like a top and the projection of jets in different directions as it changes orientation."

Imagine the black hole of the Cygni V404 as a gigantic Beyblade consuming light and running out of juice. It does not turn right, it wobbles everywhere.

You can read more about the groundbreaking discovery here on the official ICRAR website.