Supermassive black holes are notoriously messy when devouring a star, but they can also linger over their meals, letting out massive radio "burps" months or even years after their cosmic feast appears finished.
Now, scientists tracking these events have found there is no one-size-fits-all model for how black holes digest stellar material. Speaking Monday (June 15) at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in California, Kate Alexander, an astronomer at the University of Arizona who has been studying these events, said the behavior depends instead on their shifting dietary phases.
