.docauthor { Jennifer Chu } .pagemargin { topright } .docauthor | MIT News # X-ray flashes from a supermassive black hole !( 70% )[ Black hole ]( img/blackhole.jpg ) .abstract One supermassive black hole has kept astronomers glued to their scopes for the last several years. The black hole in question is `1ES 1927+654` , which is about as massive as a million suns and sits in a galaxy that is 270 million light-years away. In 2018, astronomers at MIT and elsewhere observed that the black hole’s corona — a cloud of whirling, white-hot plasma — suddenly **disappeared** , before reassembling months later. The brief though dramatic shut-off was a first in black hole astronomy. > This would be the closest thing we know of around any black hole. > - Megan Masterson, a graduate student in physics at MIT