A dramatic image of a supermassive black hole erupting like a cosmic volcano has been captured by astronomers, displaying a rebirth cast in scarlet after 100 million years of quiet.
The black hole eruption extends for nearly one million light-years and originates from the radio galaxy J1007+3540, where a struggle between the surrounding galaxy cluster’s crushing pressure and the explosive force of the magnetized plasma jet is now underway.
The findings were revealed in a recent paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Capturing a Black Hole Rebirth
Two of the world’s most sensitive radio interferometers, the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands and India’s upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT), provided the data astronomers used to investigate the supermassive black hole’s reawakening. No longer dormant, it has become an active galactic nucleus (AGN), a term describing a galactic center that emits substantial energy.
Like most galaxies, J1007+3540 hosts a supermassive black hole. The galaxy is somewhat unusual in that not many produce such large jets of radio-emitting magnetized plasma. What makes J1007+3540 truly unique is this previously unseen evidence of multiple eruptions: the black hole activates, shuts down, and then comes back to life after an extended silence.
In the radio images, the bright inner jet indicates that the supermassive black hole is erupting again, surrounded by older, faded plasma left over from previous eruptions. Over time, that plasma cocoon from earlier events was distorted and squeezed by environmental pressures into the dwindling remains we see today.
“It’s like watching a cosmic volcano erupt again after ages of calm – except this one is big enough to carve out structures stretching nearly a million light-years across space,” said lead researcher Shobha Kumari, of Midnapore City College in India. “This dramatic layering of young jets inside older, exhausted lobes is the signature of an episodic AGN – a galaxy whose central engine keeps turning on and off over cosmic timescales.”
Crushing Cosmic Pressure
Another unusual feature of J1007+3540 is the tremendous pressure it experiences within a massive galaxy cluster. That pressure is far more than typically experienced by a radio galaxy, which bends, squeezes, and distorts the jets when they encounter the dense interstellar medium. That environment is so harsh that it has compressed the radio spectrum into an ultra-steep form, full of ancient particles that have lost most of their energy.
“J1007+3540 is one of the clearest and most spectacular examples of episodic AGN with jet-cluster interaction, where the surrounding hot gas bends, compresses, and distorts the jets,” said co-author Dr Surajit Paul, associate professor at the Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences in India.
J1007+3540’s complex relationship with its cluster does not end there, though. Rather than affecting only its surroundings with its powerful magnetized plasma jet, the harsh environment is also shaping the galaxy itself. A long, faint emission in the Southwest shows plasma being dragged out in a wispy trail.
Black Holes Continue to Intrigue
Unique galaxies like J1007+3540 offer astronomers an opportunity to study multiple phenomena simultaneously, including how plasma jets evolve, how black holes go dormant and then awaken, and how dense cluster environments can shape radio galaxies. The astronomers note that this galaxy is not a picture of slow and steady progress but a dynamic conflict between explosive force and crushing pressure.
The team already has follow-up work scheduled. They plan to use higher resolution observations to get a closer look at the galaxy’s core and track how the reborn jets spread through the environment. This will help astronomers to better understand the cycles that shape galaxies in challenging, distorting environments.
The paper, “Probing AGN Duty Cycle and Cluster-driven Morphology in a Giant Episodic Radio Galaxy,” appeared in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on January 14, 2025.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.