A sight never seen before has been recorded by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
“The cosmic abyss gateway,” a stunning creation produced by the activity of the black hole – Image: NASA
According to NASA, the enigmatic black hole and its star system, collectively known as V404 Cygni, have generated peculiar light structures only visible under X-rays.
These are perfect circles, appearing in NASA’s blue hue, which the agency described as gates leading to stars, but in reality, they lead straight to the “cosmic abyss” – a ferocious black hole.
As reported by the Daily Mail, astronomers explain that these circles are created by the phenomenon of “light echoes,” analogous to how sound echoes on Earth when sound waves bounce off hard surfaces. This light originates from the black hole’s act of pulling matter from neighboring stars into its voracious mouth.
The statement from the Chandra X-ray Observatory highlights that these rings of light not only unveil intriguing insights into the black hole’s behavior but also help identify previously unseen structures between the black hole and Earth, such as dark dust clouds composed of tiny, solid particles entirely distinct from Earth’s dust.
Chandra first captured these strong and peculiar X-rays from this black hole in 2015, but it’s only now that they have been confirmed, explained, and published.