Herts scientist helps uncover rapidly accelerating x-ray flashes from black hole 270 million light-years away

A team of top astronomers including Dr William Alston, Senior Lecturer in Data Science at the University of Hertfordshire’s Centre of Astrophysics, has detected unprecedented periodic X-ray pulses from the supermassive black hole 1ES 1927+654, located approximately 270 million light-years away. The pulses of X-ray light, initially observed at 18-minute intervals, have mysteriously accelerated to every seven minutes over a two-year span. This phenomenon, never before documented, has intrigued researchers worldwide.

The team, led by MIT astronomer, [Megan Masterson], suggests that these pulses may originate from a white dwarf star, a dense remnant of a dead star, that is perilously orbiting near the black hole’s event horizon. This white dwarf appears to be shedding its outer layers, a process that may be preventing it from being completely consumed by the black hole’s immense gravitational pull.

Dr William Alston says:

"Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are regular changes in X-ray brightness near a black hole. They act like a natural clock, helping us understand how matter moves as it falls in, allowing us to test extreme physics, including Einstein’s theory of relativity.

While current telescopes can easily detect QPOs from smaller black holes in our galaxy, spotting them from supermassive black holes has been much harder and it is something I’ve been working on for the past decade.

The QPOs we’ve found in galaxy 1ES 1927+654 are surprisingly clear and change over time. In some ways, they resemble those from small black holes, but not entirely, suggesting a more unusual process is at play."

The discovery not only deepens understanding of black hole dynamics but also provides an exciting opportunity for future space missions. If the white dwarf is indeed responsible for the X-ray pulses, it should also be producing gravitational waves which are ripples in spacetime predicted by Einstein’s general relativity. Scientists believe that upcoming observatories, such as the European Space Agency’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), scheduled for launch in the 2030s, will be able to confirm this hypothesis by detecting these elusive waves.

The research, presented at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, marks a significant step in the study of black holes and their interactions with nearby stellar remnants. Continued observations with existing and future telescopes could provide even more insights into the extreme physics governing these enigmatic cosmic giants.

As astronomers eagerly monitor this ever-evolving system, one thing is certain, 1ES 1927+654 continues to challenge understanding of the universe, confirming the notion that space is full of surprises.