‘Monster’ black hole wakes up after 26 years - and it’s very, very hungry

An enormous black hole has “woken up” after 26 years - offering a rare opportunity for astronomers. The V404 Cygni system sits 8,000 light years away from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy and is made up of a black hole and a star which orbit each other. Material flows from the star towards the black hole, where it gathers in a disc and heats up, before spiralling into the hole. Repeated bright flashes of light from the system have been seen in the past 10 days, something rarely seen in other black hole systems.

It is definitely a 'once in a professional lifetime’ opportunity.

Erik Kuulkers, European Space Agency

When it flashes, it becomes the brightest object in the X-ray sky - up to 50 times brighter than the Crab Nebula, which is usually one of the brightest sources in the sky. The system has not been so bright and active since 1989, when it was observed with the Japanese X-ray satellite Ginga and instruments on the Mir space station. Erik Kuulkers, from the European Space Agency (ESA), which describes V404 Cygni as a “monster black hole”, said: “The community couldn’t be more thrilled. Many of us weren’t professional astronomers back then and the instruments and facilities available at the time can’t compare with the fleet of space telescopes and the vast network of ground-based observatories we can use today.”

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