For the first time ever, astronomers have documented the process by which radiation is expelled from black holes – a process that many believe holds the key to how galaxies are formed – using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope.
Supermassive black holes – concentrations of mass the size of hundreds of thousands or even millions of suns, with gravity so powerful even light cannot escape – exist in the centers of most galaxies.
When an object is absorbed by a black hole, not all of the contents are consumed – instead it emits a vast “belch” of intense radiation, a blinding bright whip of energy known as a tidal disruption flare, which wipes out everything in its path – READ MORE