New study sheds light on source of mysterious black hole flares

Observations carried out by NASA’s Swift and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) space telescopes may have located the source of intense X-ray bursts emitted by supermassive black holes. According to NASA, the phenomenon can be attributed to a component of a black hole known as a corona.

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> Markarian 335

Sounds familiar.

> A black hole’s “corona” gives off light in the X-ray spectrum. Currently, there are two theories regarding the structure of a corona. The first, known as the “lamppost” model, asserts that the corona is a compact, lightbulb-like source of light positioned above and below the singularity along its rotational axis. The second possibility contends that the corona takes the form of a diffuse cloud surrounding the black hole, or as two flatter sections that shroud the singularity. This is known as the “sandwich” model.

I’m getting too old for this, or perhaps they’re being deliberately obtuse.

> Moving at roughly 20 percent the speed of light, the corona … “lamppost”.

They’re being deliberately obtuse. For “lamppost” read “jet” and for “sandwich” read “accretion disk”.

Nice to see that NuStar has the resolution to pick this up. Or perhaps it doesn’t, perhaps it can pick up the doppler shift instead.