We don’t want to tell you, but there’s a black hole pointing the Earth right in your face.
Scientists have reclassified a galaxy after discovering that the supermassive black hole at its center has changed direction and is now pointing directly at us.
The galaxy in question was found 657 million light years from Earth, and has the intriguing name PBC J2333.9-2343.
We started studying this galaxy because it exhibited strange properties. Our hypothesis is that the relativistic jets from the supermassive black hole have changed direction, and to confirm that idea we have to make a lot of observations.” He said.
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The study, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, details the changes.
PBC J2333.9-2343 was previously classified as a radiogiant galaxy because at one point it sent out jets of material on either side, which are nearly four million light years across. own galaxy.
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It was quite a surprise, then, when astronomers spotted PBC J2333.9-2343 and realized that it was pointing directly at us.
This means the galaxy has moved 90 degrees, and is now a “blazar” – meaning a point-by-point galaxy jetting toward Earth.
The outpouring of matter from the black hole has created two massive lobes on either side of the galaxy which are the objects most directly visible when observed in radio waves.
“The fact that we see that the nucleus is no longer feeding the lobes means they are very old. They are remnants of past activity, while the structures near the core represent young, active jets,” continues Hernandez-García.
It’s not clear exactly how this could happen. One suggestion is that PBC J2333.9-2343 collided with another galaxy, which could explain how the axial angle changed.
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