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A black hole ‘burping’ leftover star material years after swallowing it, shooting out jets of glowing light at near half the speed of light. A black hole ‘burping’ leftover star material years after swallowing it, shooting out jets of glowing light at near half the speed of light.

Black Holes Burping: When Space Giants Let Out Leftover Star Stuff

By Peter Teoh, Science Writer

Have you ever heard of a black hole burping? It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but it’s a real cosmic event that has astronomers buzzing! Imagine a black hole swallowing a star, then years later shooting out leftover material like a giant cosmic burp. Let’s dive into this fascinating phenomenon and find out what it means.

Black holes are famous for their extreme gravity — they pull in everything nearby, even light! When a star wanders too close, the black hole’s gravity stretches it out in a process scientists call “spaghettification,” tearing the star apart. Normally, the leftover star debris spirals into the black hole and disappears, and any gas or dust that gets thrown out usually happens pretty quickly, within days or weeks.

But in a surprising twist, astronomers observed a black hole that swallowed a star back in 2018, only to start ejecting leftover star material years later — in 2021![1][4] This delayed “burp” was totally unexpected. The black hole was shooting out jets of glowing gas at nearly half the speed of light, lighting up the space around it like a cosmic firework show![2]

Why does this happen? Scientists aren’t 100% sure yet. One idea is that the star debris got stuck in a kind of cosmic traffic jam near the black hole before finally blasting out. Or maybe the black hole’s feeding process is more complicated and slow than we thought. Either way, this discovery is helping researchers understand how black holes grow and interact with their galaxies.

This phenomenon is part of what astronomers call “black hole feedback,” where black holes don’t just swallow everything silently but can also push material and energy back into space. This can affect the surrounding galaxy, even influencing star formation! Some supermassive black holes have been burping for millions of years, blasting jets of hot gas that shape their cosmic neighborhoods.[3]

So next time you think about black holes, remember they’re not just cosmic vacuum cleaners. They’re more like hungry giants who sometimes burp up leftovers, giving us spectacular light shows and clues about how the universe works.

Side Notes

  • Spaghettification: The stretching of a star into long, thin strands by strong gravity near a black hole.
  • Tidal Disruption Event (TDE): When a star gets torn apart by a black hole’s gravity.
  • Black Hole Feedback: The process where black holes push energy and matter back into their surroundings.
  • How do black holes form?
  • The mystery of dark matter and black holes
  • Space telescopes that help us see black holes
  • Recent discoveries about supermassive black holes

Science keeps surprising us, and black holes burping leftovers is just one of the coolest cosmic tales yet!

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