Scientific publications or announcements from MIT or collaborating institutions

Supermassive Black Hole 1ES 1927+654 Exhibits Unprecedented X-ray Flashes Every 7 Minutes Due to Orbiting White Dwarf

Jan 14, 2025, 04:03 PM

Astronomers have observed unprecedented behavior from the supermassive black hole 1ES 1927+654, located in a galaxy approximately 270 million light-years away in the constellation Draco. This black hole, with a mass about 1.4 million times that of the Sun, exhibited a sudden disappearance of its corona in 2018, which reappeared months later, a phenomenon never before witnessed. More recently, the black hole has been emitting flashes of X-rays at an increasing rate, initially occurring every 18 minutes and accelerating to every seven minutes over two years. This unusual activity is believed to be caused by a white dwarf, a compact core of a dead star, orbiting perilously close to the black hole's event horizon. Researchers from MIT and other institutions suggest that this white dwarf may be teetering on the edge of the black hole without falling in, potentially emitting gravitational waves detectable by future observatories like the European Space Agency's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).