Astronomers catch a recurring black hole eruption in real time

For the third time in 35 years, the black hole at the center of the galaxy IC 3599 has erupted, and this time, astronomers were watching it closely.

IC 3599, a galaxy roughly 280 million light-years away, has flared this dramatically twice before, in 1990 and 2010, but both eruptions were only pieced together after they had faded.

This is the first time researchers have watched one of these outbursts unfold in real time.

The paper outlining its multiwavelength analysis was posted to the arXiv preprint server on July 10. ...