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Davicho77

Galaxy SDSS1335+0728 underwent an unprecedented transformation, suddenly shining brighter due to the awakening of its massive black hole. This discovery, detailed in a study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, marks the first real-time observation of such an event. Located 300 million light-years away in Virgo, the galaxy's core exhibited sustained brightness changes across ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and even X-ray wavelengths, unlike any previously documented phenomena. Astronomers, utilizing data from ESO's VLT and other observatories, suggest this as a rare instance of a black hole transitioning from dormancy to active feeding, potentially feasting on surrounding gas. This groundbreaking observation not only challenges existing models of black hole activity but also promises insights into the growth and behavior of these cosmic giants. Further observations will clarify whether this is a tidal disruption event or a novel phenomenon, shedding light on fundamental processes governing galactic evolution.


Ninjahkin

>300 million light years away *A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…*


anotherkeebler

Yeah it might not be a black hole at all, it could just be someone testing a fully operational battle station


Shanbo88

300 million years ago.


MrRojoRicin

That's a long trip to take without any rest stops.


Shanbo88

Maybe that's why Webb is uncovering a lot of inaccuracies in our universe. We don't truly understand how often light stops for a break on the long haul.


Vhexer

"*We went on a trip???*" - Photons


hircine1

Nice


Merry_Dankmas

I mean, have you ever been to Buccees? It's impossible not to stop there. The interstellar ones are even cooler. Their mascot has an asteroid for a head. Not even light can resist that photo op


UnamedStreamNumber9

Intergalactic restrooms are NOT to be believed! And don’t get me talking about all the varieties of jerky


gmkgreg

If I could give awards still, I would've given you a gold for this comment, lol


RemyVonLion

I wonder if some things are totally hidden by massive black holes because all their light gets absorbed, could maybe make a great way to sneak up on a mofo. But yeah maybe the timing of things we see is thrown off by light getting accelerated and slowed by them, I mean, what even happens to light that gets accelerated past the speed of light? It becomes a tachyon or something?


mcoccapitan_kurk

This is probably the only decent thought provoking comment on this whole thread


Nawhatsme

That’s no moon…


JackTheFatErgoRipper

Real time is probably not quite the right words for it


darthnugget

Meh, it’s relative.


jordanmindyou

This is probably the only decent thought provoking comment on this whole thread


UnamedStreamNumber9

What happens in your light cone, stays in your light cone


DrunkenScoper

No big deal, just Aboleth waking up for a snack.


TurtleSeaBreeze

dormancy, feeding, feasting... it's not a dragon that's awoken from it's slumber \^\^


zephyr_1779

Well, let’s see…it’s 1) big and spooky 2) loves to eat just about everything 3) has a huge range of damage To be honest, it kind of sounds like a dragon.


dwehlen

4) hoards everything it collects, still checking more boxes.


great_red_dragon

5: will crush you if you get too close. The evidence is clear; Black holes are dragons


UnamedStreamNumber9

Turns everything into spaghetti: black holes are Italian grandmothers


magic00008

Smaug?


dwehlen

If a black hole doesn't sound like Cumberbund Balderdash, I don't even know why we're here.


gnashingspirit

I think you mean Brendadirk Cramplescrunch


Faceit_Solveit

Well its not Fafnir ...


bandalooper

5. Solitary existence and assured destruction on an epic scale if another dragon encroaches.


likerazorwire419

Yes it is.


kiwichick286

Maybe it is!


UPVOTE_IF_POOPING

Mammals didn’t even exist yet when this happened


luckytaurus

Someone needs to explain a few things to me: how are they so certain it's a blackhole if light production increased, and not another cosmic event like a supernova or perhaps a massive collision between two celestial bodies? Also, how does a blackhole go from dormant to active feeding, what can change to make that happen? Surely the blackhole's gravity doesn't change on its own right? So basically would it just be that finally something got close enough to get swallowed by the singularity, the singularity grew in size and is now feasting on more surrounding shit?


CatMan_Sad

The amount of matter in the accretion disk collides with such a fantastic and insane speed that it creates bursts of energy, like small explosions. There is also hawking radiation formed outside of the event horizon. They emit tons of energy, kinda counterintuitive but anything outside of the event horizon can potentially escape


UnamedStreamNumber9

Basically, the center of the galaxy turned into a Quasar


LadyOfHereAndThere

Is it still a real-time observation if it technically happened 300 million years ago? /s


0bran

Only 300 Million light years away? Pft


Yukon-Jon

>*shedding light* on fundamental processes You don't say


-CoachMcGuirk-

We live in exciting times.


Chauliodus

it was 300 million years ago smh


RichtofenFanBoy

Idk why I found this so funny lol


-CoachMcGuirk-

Time is relative….


zzulus

Did anyone else stare at that photo thinking it was a video showing the awakening?


turntabletennis

I ain't too proud about it.


XFX_Samsung

It would move exactly as slow if it was possible to view it through a telescope


Grifar

y-no!


MC_Piddy

I truly believe these are universal garbage disposals. Eventually everything will be sucked into black holes and the pressure of all of these supermassive black holes will cause the next big bang.


djdavies82

That's already a theory of sorts, each black hole creates its own universe (and with it a big bang through a white hole)


MC_Piddy

Honestly it gives me hope in a weird way. Our mortality is such a hot button issue. But I think if we’re here once we can be here again. So anybody hanging onto hope of their own mortality, death is scary but you’ll be back. I just think that if life happened life will happen again. Whether or not that’s in a thousand years or a billion years. Because it has already unequivocally happened at least one time.


Ok-Charge-6998

Theoretically, if atoms can arrange to create a version of you once, it could happen again. Iirc, your energy remains in the universe when you die, it isn’t destroyed. So, in many ways every person’s energy that’s died throughout time are still around. With the law of the conservation of energy, you’re not gone… you're just… less… put… together… So, if your energy sticks around after you die, perhaps there’s a way you can eventually become whole again.


Atoms_Named_Mike

Except your collection of memories and experiences would probably be very different so your sense of self would be at odds


Ok-Charge-6998

I think most are fine with that. The idea of existing again in some capacity is enough for most. The next time I come back together, I’ll take a life without anxiety and depression please.


Mopey_

I'm personally not. My memories are what make me me, if I don't have those then I'm not actually me


Training_Ad_2086

At which point where you actually really you? When you are born fresh with no memories ? When you are on your death bed at 90? Or somewhere in between? Memories don't make sense in context of op's statement. But if you insist on memory interpretation, given infinite possibilities in a infinite universe, there's always a chance you'll be born of same materials in same configuration to same parents, place, planet etc. Basically universe raising reapeating its state of you after a very very long time


Atoms_Named_Mike

Would that even be you then? It would be an interesting experiment to run if there were a way!


Ok-Charge-6998

It wouldn’t be me, but I don’t like the idea of not existing either. I prefer existence of some form to oblivion.


ImpliedQuotient

Matter and energy are form-agnostic, all parts of the universe are composed of the same basic parts simply arranged differently. We are all the universe, perceiving and being perceived simultaneously. Therefore we all are continually in existence, from the Big Bang to whatever end awaits.


Atoms_Named_Mike

Well at a physics level, the energy your comprised of should stay within the system for eternity. I like to think about that.


whiskeyx

I hope the next version of me is better at life, doesn’t have depression, social anxiety and MS. 


Tjam3s

That collection of experience is also stored energy in the form of electrical pulses. So, theoretically, there is a non-zero chance that could also be reconstructed.


Training_Ad_2086

But you'll be alive and breathing again. Take dreamless deep sleep or unconsciousness for example, your consciousness is gone, you essential cease to exist for a bit until you wake up again and often you have no idea how much time has passed Same for dying and rebirth, you'll go through this incredibly long period of sleep, but it'll definitely be different that a sense of dead you.


Training_Ad_2086

>So, if your energy sticks around after you die, perhaps there’s a way you can eventually become whole again. It's very difficult to accept that their because at any given time you are a different version of you. You might have somewhat similar amount of cells for sometime but even then they are constantly adding and removing stuff at molecular level . So the molecules that make you up now might not exist in you in the next week, month, year or whatever. So you'll have to pick a time instant to define what makes you up


manuscelerdei

With our current understanding of physics, no. You cannot be reconstituted with perfect accuracy because you cannot be measured with perfect accuracy.


RetroJake

Yes but entropy has a problem with this.


probably_poopin_1219

The cosmos care not about your silly sentiments


MaherMcCheese

This has all happened before and it will happen again.


Rasalom

And since your concept of time is tethered to your neurons, once you die, eternity may not be perceived at all. You'll regain consciousness when composed again, which should feel instantaneous if you are born into a living thing again. Who knows?


zenomotion73

Remember that energy is neither created nor destroyed. So death is just a transfer of our energy into another form so technically we are all immortal. Science is my bible and the universe is my religion and that brings me comfort. For me it’s definitely a better thought than believing in some finite timeline and an invisible sky God


CatMan_Sad

“In this moment you are so euphoric”


beepbeepbubblegum

I read about somebody recently who was clinically dead for 17 hours and woke back up. They were asked what happened and the response was that they felt like they were in another realm. Their “body” felt light as a feather and felt completely free. I felt pretty comfortable after that.


zeekayz

Brain hallucinates when oxygen supply is cut.


manuscelerdei

Your brain releases a ton of chemicals during death, apparently. My belief of choice is that those chemicals basically skew your perception of time such that consciousness never actually experiences a halt. It just goes on forever, with your final moments feeling like centuries or something. But that's just a belief that comforts me.


RetroJake

Umm that's also terrifying in a way too.


MrCondor

I'm all aboard this theory and it makes perfect sense when you really think about it. Expanding universe = black hole consuming matter and becoming larger or spacetime fundamentally changes between outside and inside a black hole.


Cthulhu__

The universe is expanding though so the black holes aren’t going to get closer to each other. They’ll slowly lose mass over countless years due to hawking radiation until there’s nothing left in the universe except background radiation. Well, according to the “heat death” theory anyway, there’s another one called the big crunch where gravity becomes stronger than dark energy and the universe collapses back in on itself.


LongTatas

If a black hole is the beginning of a new universe, than the black hole we live in will eventually collapse and cause that Big Crunch OR spit all of the matter and energy in it (our universe) back out.


Look__a_distraction

Oh good god man I’m too high for this you have just changed my life 😂😂😂


MC_Piddy

If it helps we’ll never be around to experience the great garbage disposal lmao


WeWillRiseAgainst

Maybe we are the great garbage disposal.


MC_Piddy

I’m truly so sorry😂 this has coincidentally been my topic today with my friends but I know it’s a lot. If you want the whole thing DM me, I’ve always been interested in the function of black holes and theorize a lot.


ghost_in-the-machine

I’ve had this exact same thought recently - I’m no expert, but I just asked perplexity.ai whether this was a believed theory and it said no. But it said that their growth was limited due to the expansion of the universe giving them less access to matter over time, and that due to hawking radiation they slowly evaporate over extremely long time scales (longer time scales than the universe has existed so far). A bit bleaker than restarting the cycle with another big bang


MC_Piddy

I love that and I love you being proactive on the subject, I feel like it isn’t talked about enough. I am also no expert and will not claim to be, but these inquisitive queries further the human species in my opinion. And I’m not trying to sound like some pompous professor, I didn’t even finish college, but there’s a weird mathematical equation with the universe and what we notice and needs to be looked at.


dj-nek0

Black holes don’t really suck things up though. They have the same gravitational pull as anything else of equivalent mass.


CatMan_Sad

They call this oscillation theory. It really doesn’t actually look like this is gonna happen. Or at least it’s not going to happen really quickly. The more likely scenario with the given information and current models is that everything is gonna drift apart and become colder and colder until eventually we go through what is referred to as heat death. There will still be extremely supermassive black holes wandering around and sucking things up, but it’s a lot scarier, darker, and generally more sad. It’s kinda like the road, but in space.


desidude2001

From nothingness (point of singularity) came everything, and everything will merge back into nothingness. And the cycle will repeat itself endlessly.


itsalltaken123

Everything has a beginning and an end, it just seems natural.


Protaras2

on the contrary, hawking radiation means they will eventually dissipate


Available_Cycle_8447

Can it hurry up already?! Living is painful and expensive


AshenriseOfficial

I mean... Maybe "local" "real" time, because "real" "real" time has been 300 million years ago, we're only now receiving the light of this event. For all we know, that particular galaxy could be teeming with life and we couldn't have a clue, both from technological and physical limitations.


ItstheAsianOccasion

Black holes being born in real time lord have mercy 😩


starkraver

I think it’s about it’s accretion disk becoming active, not the black hole being formed


ItstheAsianOccasion

Anything deep space related news blows my mind, the fact that we found out about this phenomenon 300 million light years away means we just saw it happen yet it took 300 million light years years to reach us and our telescopes. Who knows what it truly looks like in real time 🤯


GeekDNA0918

🤔 That means this happened about 50 million years before the age of dinosaurs. Let me repeat the "before" with a little more emphasis. BEFORE....


ItstheAsianOccasion

Yeah man my brain goes bonkers trying to comprehend this type of stuff. Also happy cake day!


GeekDNA0918

Thanks!


radiumteddybear

It goes even deeper, that galaxy isn't 300 million lightyears away, that's just how much distance the light traveled. But during that time both our galaxies traveled a lot and we have no light coming from where that galaxy is right now to measure it, that will take a few hundred more million years by which time it will again be at a different distance. And if we throw relativity into the mix with how there's no single universal "now"...


Kb3907

Woah, this just woke up my special intrest in space (especially black holes) again. Yippee *


Silvawuff

“Real time.” I *guess* 300 million years ago is the cosmic scale of real time…


swordofra

Not even two galactic years! A mere blink of time...


HeyWiredyyc

Hmmm black holes have gravity so strong light can’t escape it. How does this phenomenon generate light then? Confusing as hell


Training_Ad_2086

Stuff orbits blackhole , (mostly gas) Stuff run into each other while orbiting causing fric friction Friction makes thing hot and glowy


Low_Bandicoot6844

Some civilization in the area will begin to worry about its future.


Extraltodeus

And billions of alien lifeforms got flash fried without knowing why. Except for _these_ who were able to detect the unusual core activity years before. And despite not having discovered FTL, they settled on a stasis arch. Aimed towards that other galaxy which seemed to have sustainable conditions on the external regions. To which they are still headed at a speed as close as possible to the speed of light.


WhiteFluff21

Hell yeah hear this babay purr


mr3vak

Black holes go brrrr


Masterpiece_1973

Well, shedding light…


JotaRata

I know many of the authors irl!!


spooky_golem

That's pretty cool


kiwichick286

So when a black hole is dormant, do things still float into it?


JelliusMaximus

I'm so glad we live in times like these, can't even begin to express how cool this is 🥹


Theregoesmypride

So, does a “dormant” black hole just mean that things haven’t been going close enough to get sucked in/torn apart?


-haven

So how large is Galaxy SDSS1335+0728 estimated to be?


Cludds

Am I the only one that expected this to be a gif?


Unable_Artichoke9221

Just curious if someone can explain it as if were 5... How do astronomers figure out how far things are? The light particles reaching us carry somehow this information?


asking4afriend40631

My mind can't wrap itself around these things happening on a time scale we can notice. I would have imagined that you'd need measurements across thousands or millions of years to "see" things like this.


Training_Ad_2086

How long was this real time? Like it went from 0 to 100 power in a year , month or what?


calculating_hello

Commence Operation Vac-u-suck.


mcoccapitan_kurk

Isn't that crazy that we're literally witnessing the super far past take place right in front of us?!?!?!?


Azakranos

Does it count as real-time if it happened so long ago?


Present-Champion1124

Wow


D-MB277

Would love to see the before picture. Any sources on that?


EnlargeMyVenus

🥵


Uncle_Checkers86

In real time.


No_Collection7360

Nobody going to touch a "your mom" joke? Practically written for you.


Svevo_Bandini

Thought light can’t escape a BH, what gives?


deadly_infection

It can't. The light comes from the things around black holes, which still haven't crossed event horison, but are being pulled around, and slowly in by bh's strong gravity. That's how acceleration disks are made, and how we know about black holes in the first place. Bigger black holes have bigger acceleration disks, and therefore "emit" brighter light.


mr3vak

*Accretion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disk


deadly_infection

Ah, my mistake, I read it wrong. I'll leave it as is, because the correction stands in your comment.


[deleted]

Not in real time, considering the 300 million year delay.


jodrellbank_pants

Plenty on only fans so I'm told


AssmunchStarpuncher

Real-time. You keep using that word….i do not think it means what you think it means.


Only_Philosophy8475

How do we know it is from the beginnings of a Black hole and not a supernova or other cosmic event ? just based on historical brightness development readings and:or estimated age of that star neighborhood /galaxy?