A temperamental black hole is helping scientists learn more about how galaxies evolve. In a new study published Feb. 1 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers describe how an outburst from a distant black hole changed its galactic landscape — and how similar activity may have shaped our own galaxy.
Markarian 817 is a spiral galaxy located some 430 million light-years from Earth. Like our galaxy, the Milky Way, it has a massive black hole at its center. Such objects help hold galaxies together, exerting enough gravity on stars, dust and other material to keep everything slowly orbiting around a central point — and occasionally gobbling up some of that matter when it falls too close to the black hole's event horizon. But recently, researchers spotted Markarian 817's black hole doing something unexpected.
