Strange flares in space. Scientists finally figured it out
Flares in the cosmic sky are not that unheard of. But what if the phenomenon can repeat itself many times in the same place? This is when the eyes of astronomers look even more eagerly to find an answer to this phenomenon.
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Astronomers were able to observe the first flare in March 2021. At first, researchers thought this light reflection was a supernova and named it AT 2021hdr. However, even then the flare was so interesting that the object was included as potentially interesting in the Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events (ALeRCE) program. And then, in 2022, another outbreak was observed.
A brilliant duo
Over time, it turned out that it occurs repeatability of cosmic flares over a period of 60 to 90 days. This eliminated the supernova thesis, but still did not explain what these light reflections were. The answer was suggested only by the latest research published in Universe Today. The answer came from the idea that AT 2021hdr might be a tidal disruption event (TDE), in which a star came too close to a black hole and was, as the name suggests, torn apart.
There was only one problem. Phenomena such as TDE do not tend to follow regular patterns – explains sciencealert.com. But it turns out that the answer may lie very close to this pattern. When, instead of one black hole, researchers placed a system of two such objects in the model, everything fell into place. At least in the simulation performed. Such a system of black holes, instead of tearing the cloud apart, would gradually absorb it, leading to cyclic flares, as is the case with AT 2021hdr.
This thesis is also confirmed by periodic oscillations of ultraviolet and X-ray radiation captured by the Neil Gehrels Swift observatory. Researchers managed to determine that both black holes have a total mass of about 40 million Suns. If they continue on their paths, the two black holes will merge in about 70,000 years – informs sciencealert.com. It turns out, however, that without the mentioned cloud we would never have noticed them.
