Black holes have fascinated people for a while now, and we all know them as being stellar objects that absorb everything, especially to a terrifying level in science fiction (and our nightmares).

However, two of NASA’s space telescopes discovered something quite unusual with Markarian 335, a supermassive black hole 324 million light-years away. It emitted X-ray energy. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (aka NuSTAR) detected the black hole’s corona (the light around a black hole) being pushed away from it.

So, why did a flare come out of black hole? Scientists are scratching their heads, but with more research we could solve some of the bigger mysteries of how black holes function.

“This is the first time we have been able to link the launching of the corona to a flare. This will help us understand how supermassive black holes power some of the brightest objects in the universe,” stated Dan Wilkins of Saint Mary’s University.

Luckily, NuSTAR’s ability to record this energy emission will prove essential to understanding Markarian 335.

Source: Blastr