Astronomical Anomalies

What happens when the gas supply at a Black Hole runs out? – It’s “lights out!” Previous evidence suggested that quasar shutoff took tens or hundreds of thousands of years but this one shut down in just seven years – blink of an eye in cosmic time. Now being called “changing-look” quasars, researchers think that if their gas supply is restored, they might even switch back on.

And speaking of odd objects, consider a newly discovered magnetar – a star-like object 200 times more powerful than the average supernova, 570 billion times brighter than our sun, 20 times brighter than all the stars of our galaxy combined, yet only 10 miles across !

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, and then Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of 40 days of fasting for observers of Lent, ending just before Easter Sunday March 28.