The Cosmic Lighthouse Has Switched ⚡ экспресс
Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are repeating X-ray flares from supermassive black holes. By comparing data from 2024 and 2025, astronomers discovered that the Ansky object's flares became four times more powerful, and their duration and repetition period doubled. The flare profile turned asymmetric, with a drawn-out decay. This parameter drift can be likened to a cosmic metronome that suddenly changed its tempo and volume. A possible cause is the evolving interaction of a matter stream with the accretion disk in a system consisting of a black hole and a small compact object (EMRI).
At the heart of a large galaxy lurks a giant black hole — a region from which not even light escapes. But sometimes, like a lighthouse, it gives off regular X-ray flares. In 2025, at the object Ansky, this lighthouse suddenly changed its signal: the gaps between flares grew from 5 to 10 days, but each flare became four times more energetic and lasts twice as long. The fading is now slower – as if the source doesn’t just switch off but smolders out.
The likely cause is a massive companion (a star or gas cloud) that grazes the spinning disk of superheated material around the hole. Under the effect of spacetime curvature, predicted by Einstein, this companion’s orbit is changing, and with it the rhythm of the signals. Perhaps we are witnessing the final loops before the star vanishes forever.
To crack the mechanics, astronomers will continue photometric measurements and spectral analysis of the radiation.
🎯 Although the flares repeat almost like clockwork, the interval between them can drift slightly, so they are called quasi-periodic (nearly periodic).
🎬 Stories about signals from extraterrestrial civilizations may come to mind, but here it's pure physics at work.