Astronomers spot dramatic gamma-ray flare from blazar TXS 2013+370
Back in February 2021, astronomers observed a significant gamma-ray flare from TXS 2013+370—a supermassive black hole about 400 million times the mass of our Sun, located near the Milky Way's plane.
Its jet is aimed almost right at us, letting telescopes pick up some seriously energetic signals across space.
New jet feature hints at wild activity
Scientists using high-resolution radio telescopes found a fresh jet component, called N2, just 60 microarcseconds from the blazar's core.
This new feature lines up with bursts of activity across different wavelengths, suggesting there's a lot happening close to this black hole.
Where and when do these flares happen?
The gamma rays seem to come from either within the blazar's broad-line region, where external Compton scattering of optical/UV photons occurs, or further downstream, where its dusty torus scatters light through the same process.
Interestingly, changes in gamma rays show up about 102 days before similar changes in radio waves, helping astronomers pin down exactly where these powerful emissions start in the jet.