Giovanni Miniutti

Five years after ripping a star apart, a black hole in a distant galaxy is emitting regular X-ray emissions: every 12 hours, a powerful flare, and on its crest, micro-bursts. Astronomers explain this by oscillations in the gas disk, churned up by an unseen companion, and in the future, such systems

At the supermassive black hole 'Ansky,' X-ray flares follow a steadily slowing rhythm. Each day, the gap between them grows by nearly half an hour. This defies all models: when a star falls into a black hole, flares should speed up, not slow down. The cause remains unknown.

Astronomers cracked the flare pattern of a distant galaxy. A tiny orbiting object repeatedly punches through a gas cloud — the remains of a torn-apart star. The cloud is bent, so some bursts shine brighter, others dimmer. This on-off rhythm unveils the central black hole's spin. In a few decades, th