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Black hole caught 'burping' galactic gas supply

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35237863
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Full list of words from this list:

  1. lopsided
    having one side lower or smaller or lighter than the other
    Remarkably, only one of the pair is surrounded by the usual bright, spherical clump of gravitationally bound stars - posing something of a mystery. galaxy with two black holes Image copyright Hubble Space Telescope/Chandra X-ray Observatory Image caption The merged galaxy SDSS J1126+2944 contains a bizarre, lopsided pair of black holes
  2. feedback
    the process in which output of a system is returned to input
    The findings, presented at the 227th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Florida, are a dramatic example of "feedback" between a supermassive black hole and its host galaxy.
  3. merger
    an occurrence that involves the production of a union
    It is one of a pair of supermassive black holes, circling each other within a single galaxy after a big merger event.
  4. swathe
    wrap in or as if in strips of cloth
    The swathes of hot gas, detected in X-ray images from Nasa's Chandra space telescope, appear to be sweeping cooler hydrogen gas ahead of them.
  5. blast
    a sudden, loud sound
    That makes it one of the closest black holes blasting gas in this way.
  6. intermediate
    lying between two extremes in time, space, or state
    Alternatively, the star-starved black hole may simply belong to a very rare, intermediate class - much smaller than the usual supermassive monsters that sit at the centre of big galaxies.
  7. clump
    a grouping of a number of similar things
    Remarkably, only one of the pair is surrounded by the usual bright, spherical clump of gravitationally bound stars - posing something of a mystery. galaxy with two black holes Image copyright Hubble Space Telescope/Chandra X-ray Observatory Image caption The merged galaxy SDSS J1126+2944 contains a bizarre, lopsided pair of black holes
  8. gorge
    a deep ravine, usually with a river running through it
    The black hole at the centre of NGC 5195 probably gorged on gas that was delivered by the small galaxy's interaction with its much bigger, spiralling neighbour.
  9. strip
    take off or remove
    Deep red light, indicating the presence of hydrogen, was seen in a thin strip just in front of the outermost wave, in optical images from a telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.
  10. patch
    a small contrasting part of something
    But the patch of hydrogen, spread out in a thin shape closely matching the arc of hot gas seen in Chandra X-ray images, clinched this as a belch rather than a gulp.
  11. glimpse
    a brief or incomplete view
    Black holes are well known for consuming gas and stars, but the two arcs of material glimpsed here are the equivalent of a burp after a big meal, the team said.
  12. make it
    succeed in a big way; get to the top
    That makes it one of the closest black holes blasting gas in this way.
  13. bound
    confined by bonds
    Remarkably, only one of the pair is surrounded by the usual bright, spherical clump of gravitationally bound stars - posing something of a mystery. galaxy with two black holes Image copyright Hubble Space Telescope/Chandra X-ray Observatory Image caption The merged galaxy SDSS J1126+2944 contains a bizarre, lopsided pair of black holes
Created on Thu Jan 05 21:02:55 EST 2017

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