This heart-shaped black hole beats every five to ten million years

A black hole resembling a human heart has been beating about every 5 to 10 million years, pumping material and energy into its environment.

This supermassive black hole - a black hole with a mass much greater than the most massive stars (100 solar masses) - is at the centre of a large elliptical galaxy called NGC 469 that lies at the centre of the Centaurus galaxy cluster. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes show evidence of repeated bursts, or eruptions, of energetic particles from this black hole.

These black hole bursts, or beats, have been occurring every five to ten million years. Besides the vastly differing time scales, these beats also differ from typical human heartbeats in not occurring at particularly regular intervals.

Scientists have found that these bursts created cavities within the hot, X-ray emitting gas that pervades the cluster. They also create shock waves, similar to sonic booms produced by high-speed airplanes, which travel tens of thousands of light years across the cluster.

Be still the (arrhythmic) beating of my black hole heart, it's #ValentinesDay! A supermassive #BlackHole shaped like an anatomical heart has been "beating" about every 5-10 million years, pumping material & energy into the environment around it: https://t.co/7adtq3xO10 ⚫❤️ pic.twitter.com/ZjCN4EQv6a

— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) February 14, 2023

The energy emitted by this supermassive black hole has the ability to inhibit the cooling of the massive reservoir of hot gas, thus impeding the formation of numerous stars within the gas.

The above picture is a composition of data gathered by various telescopes. The Red-colored X-ray data captured by Chandra illustrates the hot gas present in the cluster, while blue-coloured radio data from the NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array depicts high-energy particles produced by the jets powered by the black hole. Green-coloured visible light data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope displays galaxies within and outside the cluster along with stars.