Black Hole Throws Off Its Rhythm express
Astronomers are monitoring X-ray flares from the vicinity of a black hole at the center of a galaxy. These flares repeat with a certain rhythm, like heartbeats. Normally, as a star approaches a black hole, the rhythm speeds up — just as a pulse quickens when running. But at the black hole 'Ansky,' the rhythm is slowing down. Each successive beat lags more than the previous one: over a day, the gap grows by almost half an hour. It's as if the heart, instead of racing under stress, were slowing to a halt.
Nobody yet knows why this rhythm is slowing. Perhaps we're missing some fundamental process — for instance, an unknown way of losing energy.
Each flare lasts several hours, while the intervals between them can span months. The change in tempo has been measured with jeweler's precision: 0.017 days per day — roughly 24 minutes of daily lag.