The European Space Agency’s (ESA) XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope recently discovered rapidly fluctuating X-ray signals coming from the edge of supermassive black hole 1ES 1927+654. Located at the center of a nearby galaxy, the black hole’s X-ray signals have given scientists insight into its nature and how matter falls into it.
Moreover, XMM-Newton’s observations also point to a new potential source for gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are most commonly produced by binary black hole systems in which two black holes orbit one another. However, the gravitational waves produced by the black hole in XMM-Newton’s observations result from a mysterious object orbiting the black hole.