{"id":236518,"date":"2026-01-16T15:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/236518\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T15:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:25:13","slug":"black-hole-space-volcano-erupts-after-100-million-year-nap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/236518\/","title":{"rendered":"Black hole space volcano erupts after 100 million year nap"},"content":{"rendered":"

A supermassive black hole<\/a> is reawakening inside a distant galaxy cluster\u2014and after almost 100 million years of slumber, astronomers now say it\u2019s making up for lost time. According to a study published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society<\/a>, J1007+3540 is erupting like a volcano and spewing plasma across interstellar space.<\/p>\n

A black hole<\/a> isn\u2019t constantly devouring its unfortunate galactic neighbors. In fact, it can lay dormant for eons. But when one of these gargantuan entities finally reawakens, the resulting display isn\u2019t only impressive\u2014it illustrates the chaotic battle between its own cosmic forces and the pressures of the universe around it.<\/p>\n

One of the most striking glimpses of such an event was recently captured by a team led by Shobha Kumari at India\u2019s Midnapore City College. Supermassive black holes rarely emit magnetized, radio-emitting plasma, but according to Kumari, J1007+3540 is especially unique. After analyzing data collected by the Low Frequency Array<\/a> (LOFAR) in the Netherlands and India\u2019s Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (uGMRT), researchers say there is undeniable evidence of multiple eruptions stretching deep into the universe\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like watching a cosmic volcano erupt again after ages of calm\u2014except this one is big enough to carve out structures stretching nearly a million light-years across space,\u201d Kumari said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe same images with labels showing the compressed northern lobe, curved backflow signature of plasma and the inner jet of the black hole. Credit: LOFAR \/ Pan-STARRS \/ Kumari et al.<\/a><\/p>\n

Radio imaging revealed a small, bright interior jet indicative of J1007+3540\u2019s internal forces revving back up. But surrounding this illumination is an older layer of fading, distorted plasma from previous active eras.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis dramatic layering of young jets inside older, exhausted lobes is the signature of an episodic [active galactic nucleus]\u2014a galaxy whose central engine keeps turning on and off over cosmic timescales,\u201d added Kumari.<\/p>\n

The supermassive black hole\u2019s forces are unfathomably strong, but the influences of the giant galaxy cluster around it can\u2019t be ignored either. The surrounding plumes of incredibly hot gas exert their own pressure, in this case even higher than most other radio galaxies. These cosmic regions then mangle and distort J1007+3540\u2019s plasma jets as they race outward. For example, LOFAR\u2019s imaging depicts a compressed northern lobe that is curving to one side due to the galactic gas. Complimentary data from uGMRT reveals a very steep radio spectrum indicative of old, weakened plasma particles.<\/p>\n

\u201cJ1007+3540 is one of the clearest and most spectacular examples of episodic AGN with jet-cluster interaction, where the surrounding hot gas bends, compresses, and distorts the jets,\u201d added Surajit Paul, a study coauthor and astronomer at the Manipal Center for Natural Sciences in India.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, Kumari, Paul, and their collaborators hope to employ higher-resolution equipment to peer into J1007+3540\u2019s core. In doing so, researchers can better chart how the black hole\u2019s reignited jets travel through the galaxy cluster, as well as how often such events actually occur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A supermassive black hole is reawakening inside a distant galaxy cluster\u2014and after almost 100 million years of slumber,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[400,14259,111,139,69,139782,147,139781,392,20811],"class_list":["post-236518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-black-hole","tag-interstellar-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-royal-astronomical-society","tag-science","tag-shobha-kumari","tag-space","tag-supermassive-black-hole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}