Burping black holes

What’s a feast without the occasional belch? A team led by CU Boulder Assistant Professor Julie Comerford explored another consequence of the collision between two galaxies. The researchers found evidence that the supermassive black hole sitting at the heart of a galaxy called J1354 had turned on and off not once, but twice—each time ejecting jets of hot gas far into space. The cause seemed to be another galaxy that had strayed too close to J1354. In the process, J1354’s black hole gobbled up material from the “companion” galaxy in two separate events over the span of about 100,000 years. “We are seeing this object feast, burp and nap, and then feast, burp and nap again,” Comerford says.