Swift J1727.8−1613 tagged posts

Black holes are often portrayed as cosmic gluttons that swallow everything that comes too close. But new observations of a dramatic black hole outburst—led by Warwick Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Noel Castro Segura—suggest the reality is much messier.

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers followed the newly discovered black hole system Swift J1727.8−1613 through a spectacular 2023 eruption. The work is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Astronomers found that as the black hole consumed gas from a nearby star, it simultaneously launch...