Black Hole Activity (VIDEO)

Kyoto University

Caption

An international research team reports that the activity of such phenomena can be observed as visible light during outbursts, and that flickering light emerging from gases surrounding black holes is a direct indicator of this. The team's results, published in Nature, indicate that optical rays and not just X-rays provide reliable observational data for black hole activity. The video shows violent optical variations observed from V404 Cyg (circled) on Jun 23, 2015. The flickering of visible light continued for 3.5 hours.

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Michael Richmond/Rochester Institute of Technology

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