Researchers from MIT have now found eight new echoing black hole binaries – systems with a star orbiting and sometimes being eaten by a black hole – in our Milky Way. During this phase, the posterior hole illuminates its surroundings. When a black hole sucks in gas and dust from an orbiting star, it creates spectacular X-ray bursts that bounce back and spiral inward. They are also very afraid, because their gravity is so strong that they do not allow anything to pass through them, not even light, except in rare cases when they are feeding.
Black holes are fascinating and mysterious objects.
