Overview

• Ansky, a supermassive black hole in galaxy SDSS1335+0728, has transitioned from decades of dormancy to an active state, emitting extraordinary X-ray flares.
• These quasiperiodic eruptions (QPEs) occur at regular intervals of approximately 4.5 days and are ten times longer and more luminous than typical QPEs.
• Each eruption releases one hundred times more energy than previously observed, pushing the boundaries of current models of black hole behavior.
• Observations suggest the flares are caused by interactions within the black hole's accretion disk, potentially involving a small orbiting object, rather than the tidal disruption of a star.
• Astronomers are using multiple X-ray observatories, including NASA's Chandra, Swift, NICER, and ESA's XMM-Newton and eROSITA, to study this rare phenomenon in real time.