Scientists stumble across a massive black hole that woke up from slumber after 20 years

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In a new, groundbreaking discovery, scientists have discovered a supermassive black hole that woke up from slumber after 20 years of inactivity.

Located in the heart of the SDSS1335+0728 galaxy in the Virgo constellation, which is around 300 million light years away, the massive black hole was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility after it noticed a sudden change in the galaxy’s brightness in late 2019.

The black hole, which has a mass approximately one million times that of the Sun, has been spewing out intense light in the infrared, optical and ultraviolet wavelengths for a while. However, last year, Chilean astronomers noticed that it was spewing out bursts of X-rays, which was a sign that the sleeping black hole was waking up from its nearly 20-year-long slumber.

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Soon after, it started feeding on the gas around it, causing the galaxy to become one with an active galactic nucleus (AGN), with scientists giving it the nickname – Ansky. Follow-up measurements indicate that the black hole hasn’t settled down even after four years, which is way longer than the brightest supernova flares. However, the luminosity is still lower than that of quasars.

“Imagine you’ve been observing a distant galaxy for years, and it always seemed calm and inactive. Suddenly, its core starts showing dramatic changes in brightness, unlike any typical event we’ve seen before,” says Paula Sanchez Saez, the lead author of the study, who first noticed the massive black hole.

While it is not uncommon for black holes to go dormant for a few years, where they do not gobble up matter, this is the first time humans are observing a black hole transitioning from a quiet to active state. The observation might also help scientists study the evolution of galaxies and the growth of black holes, offering insights into how these cosmic phenomena work.