A large international team of scientists has observed a phenomenon that astronomers didn’t ever expect to see happen in real time. A new paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters led by Eileen Meyer, associate professor of physics at UMBC, describes the findings. It reports remarkable increases in radio emission in a few months and formation of plasma jets extending from a black hole over the course of a year.

A galaxy about 270 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Draco called 1ES 1927+654 is the focus of the excitement. For many years, scientists had classified 1ES 1927+654 as an “active galactic nucleus,” or AGN, meaning it has an active black hole at its center. This particular black hole was adding material at a slow rate—until it wasn’t.

Back in 2018, the black hole first made news when it suddenly increased its activity exponentially. It dramatically increased the rate at which it was consuming material and became over 100 times brighter in the visible light spectrum over the course of a few months. A shift like that was once thought to take far longer than a human lifetime, on the order of thousands to millions of years. Since then, scientists have been observing it closely for any additional interesting phenomena, and 1ES 1927+654 has delivered.

More drama

After the major increase in activity began in 2018, which included nearly a year of extremely high levels of X-ray emission, the black hole quieted down again by 2020—only to dramatically increase its output again in 2023. At that time, it began emitting radio waves at 60 times the previous intensity over just a few months, behavior which has never been monitored in real time for a supermassive black hole.

Some of the highest-resolution imaging of radio frequency emissions was collected using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). It clearly shows a pair of oppositely directed plasma jets forming near the black hole and expanding outward over the course of 2023 – 2024. Among the other unusual behavior of the black hole, this is the first-ever observation of jet formation in real time.

In recent years, scientists have discovered a handful of supermassive black holes that appear to emit far more intensely at radio frequencies compared to when they were first observed, which they call “changing-look AGN.” However, until now all of them had been observed at two timepoints years or decades apart, and the assumption was that “something happened” in between. This new paper gives the very first look at how this kind of change occurs in detail.

Turning on in real time

In some cases, black hole jets “can reach huge scales well outside the host galaxy. They can affect how many stars are forming,” Meyer says. Figuring out how the jets work “is a very important thing, in order to understand the big picture of how the universe is evolving and galaxies evolved.”

In the case described in the new paper, “We have very detailed observations of a radio jet  ‘turning on’ in real time, and even more exciting are the VLBI observations, which clearly show these plasma blobs moving out from the black hole,” Meyer says. “That shows us that this really is an outflow jet of plasma that’s causing the radio flare. It’s not some other process causing increased radio emission. This is a jet moving at likely 20 to 30 percent of the speed of light originating very near a black hole. That’s the exciting thing.”

Sibasish Laha, an associate research scientist for UMBC with the Center for Space Sciences Technology at Goddard Space Flight Center and second author on the new paper, has long studied changing-look AGN at X-ray wavelengths. On a hunch that 1ES 1927+654’s radio frequency emission might show interesting behavior as well, he reached out to Meyer to form a collaboration to study it and other similar galaxies back in 2020. He is lead author on a companion paper that is currently under review. It includes additional X-ray observations and interpretation of the jet formation event. 

“We still do not understand how black holes and their host galaxies interact with each other and co-evolve in cosmic time,” Laha says, “and this study for the first time gives us the rare opportunity to understand how a supermassive black hole ‘talks’ to the host galaxy.”

Not for the faint of heart

In this kind of work, time is of the essence. “Time-domain astronomy,” as it’s called, “is not for the faint of heart,” Meyer says. “You know, there are rapid alerts—something happens and you have to go follow up. You gotta get on it, and it doesn’t matter if it’s midnight, you have to send that email because you know every hour counts. It’s a little stressful.”

The project became an “all hands on deck” moment for the UMBC collaboration. Once Meyer and Laha saw the huge jump in radio activity in 2023, Meyer says, “We were like, ‘whoa, ok, something is happening.’ This has never been seen before. We got very excited, so this is where we went all in on basically trying to grab every radio telescope and get it to look at this source.”

Because 1ES 1927+654 was changing so rapidly before their eyes, the team was awarded new, unscheduled observations on telescopes around the world during the study period, when typically telescope time must be scheduled months or years in advance.

A postdoctoral fellow working with Meyer, Onic Shuvo, who is third author on the paper, took on the lion’s share of the late-night duties, rapidly analyzing incoming data and requesting new observations. He’s thrilled to be part of such an exciting discovery. “This remarkable finding challenges existing models of AGN activity and highlights the unique role that changing-look AGN play in unraveling the mysteries of the central engine of active galaxies in real-time,” Shuvo says.

A new jet is born

The newborn jets coming from 1ES 1927+654 are relatively small compared to the massive jet structures in some of the most powerful AGN, Meyer says. But that doesn’t make them less interesting—in fact, they are probably more common across the universe and therefore very important to understand, she says.

Some data suggested that the 2018 flare, in the visible spectrum, could be due to a “tidal disruption event,” where a large object like a star or cloud of gas gets too close to an inactive black hole and artificially brightens it for just a few years, Meyer says. But observations of tidal disruption events in already-active galaxies are rare and not well understood.  

While the largest plasma jets extend well beyond their host galaxies and last millions of years, scientists are gaining understanding of a new class of smaller, shorter-lived jets called “compact symmetric objects,” or CSOs. Meyer believes the data in this case point most strongly to the birth of a new CSO. One recent hypothesis is that jets in CSOs are qualitatively different from the very large and long-lived jets seen elsewhere, Meyer says, perhaps representing “a single ingestion of a star or a gas cloud; basically a single tidal disruption event happens and powers this short-term jet for maybe 1,000 years.”

Perhaps the tidal disruption event occurred several years ago, “and it took a few years for the accreting black hole to organize and start producing the jet,” as the team saw in 2023 – 2024, Meyer says. 

Open questions

Overall, “We still don’t really understand after all these decades of studying these sources why only a fraction of accreting black holes produce jets and then exactly how they launch them. Until recently we could not literally look into that innermost region to see what’s happening—how the accretion disk surrounding the black hole is interacting with and producing the jet. And so there are still a lot of open questions there,” Meyer says. 

Questions remain, but today there are many promising models of how black holes produce jets, Meyer says. Next steps will include working with theorists to understand how the data from this study can help test and refine those models. 

“There’s a lot of theoretical work to be done to understand what we’ve seen, but the good thing is that we have a massive amount of data,” Meyer says. “We’re going to keep following this source, and it’s going to continue to be exciting.” 

Join the team from PNC Bank for a "Banking in the USA" seminar. 

Following the seminar, the team will be available to help interested students apply for a bank account.

Location: University Center 204

Jan 9, 2-3pm

Jan 16, 2-3pm

Jan 22, 11am-12pm

Jan 28, 2-3pm

***If you are going to apply for a bank account, please bring your I-20, passport, and other documents with you to the event***

UMBChas been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) for innovative planning and efforts to encourage nonpartisan voter engagement in the 2024 election. In December, the university received the ALL IN Highly Established Action Plan Seal with a perfect score, and last month was named an ALL IN Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting. 

UMBC’s campus action plan is considered among the best in the country for building and fostering nonpartisan civic engagement. The 2024 ALL in Highly Established Action Plan recognition was awarded to just 228 higher education institutions with strong plans to promote civic learning, political engagement, and college student voter participation. Action plan strength is determined by reviewing plans with the Strengthening American Democracy Action Planning Rubric.

The 2024 ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting recognizes colleges and universities for outstanding efforts to increase nonpartisan student voter participation. UMBC joins a group of 471 colleges and universities recognized by ALL IN for completing four core actions: participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge; sharing 2022 NSLVE Reports with campus voting data with ALL IN; developing and submitting a 2024 democratic engagement action plan with ALL IN; having a current signatory to ALL IN’s Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation. 

“Everyone stepped up”

Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, shared, “The research is clear: colleges and universities that make intentional efforts to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement have higher campus voter registration and voter turnout rates. This year we saw more colleges than ever before step up their efforts to ensure that their students were registered and ready to make their voices heard at the ballot box.” 

During the fall semester, students, faculty, and staff all contributed to UMBC’s efforts to plan and engage its community in the 2024 election. From voting education initiatives developed and hosted by Center for Democracy and Civic Life staff and others, to voter registration efforts from various campus units and student organizations, to intentional spaces for processing and learning together, everyone helped members of our community cast their whole vote. 

“More than we have ever seen, everyone stepped up,” said Ricky Blissett ‘11, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life. “Every week, we would hear from people on our campus asking, ‘How can I help?’ Students, both as individuals and as leaders of campus organizations; staff, including those representing academic, student affairs, and other campus departments; faculty from every part of our academic community; alumni who participated in programming—from every corner of our campus, people created opportunities for the UMBC community to connect with the election in ways that centered dialogue, exploration of values, and care for one another. We will sustain that momentum as we move forward into the future.”

The “Highly Established Action Plan” and “Most Engaged Campuses” came into being in 2022 and are awarded during election years. UMBC earned both in 2022 and now, 2024. This is the first year UMBC received a perfect score for its action plan. In September 2024, UMBC was recognized for Excellence in Student Voter Registration and Turnout During the 2022 Midterm Elections. 

Over 1,100 students crossed the stage at the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena this week at Commencement to take their place as the newest members of UMBC’s alumni community. The Class of 2024 inspired and amazed us during their time at UMBC. 

“Believing you have the ability to impact the world around you is the first step in developing a freedom mindset,” said Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman ’95, interdisciplinary studies, speaking to this year’s graduates. “Your education at UMBC has most likely supported this journey towards having a freedom mindset, and you may not have fully realized that yet.”

In his first Commencement address, UMBC Provost Manfred H. M. van Dulmen charged the new graduates to take some time to think about how they got here.

Foad Hamidi, an assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems, has won funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support two new projects offering technology-rich informal learning opportunities to diverse populations in Baltimore and beyond. 

In the first project, called Space for All, Hamidi will collaborate with Digital Harbor Foundation, a Baltimore-based organization dedicated to creating pathways to opportunity through technology, and MN Associates, an education evaluation firm, to create accessible and engaging learning spaces and programs with and for youth and young adults with autism in three community spaces in Baltimore City. The second project—Introducing Synthetic Biology using Biomaker Activities—will work with youth and their families to co-design activities that support their STEM learning and engagement. That project is a collaboration with the University of Texas at El Paso, Baltimore Underground Science Space (BUGSS), and MN Associates, and will engage participants in El Paso and Baltimore City.

“This work builds on long-term engagement with community partners and transdisciplinary collaboration with experts in participatory design, learning sciences, and special education,” says Hamidi. “The two projects collectively provide our multi-institutional teams with more than $3.3 million to investigate and implement technology-rich, inclusive learning spaces and programs for youth and young adults. The projects will prioritize centering young learners’ and their families’ perspectives and interests through a participatory, community-engaged approach.”

Past outreach success

The projects incorporate lessons from Hamidi’s previous successful community engagement efforts. In an earlier project with the Digital Harbor Foundation Hamidi helped develop technology-rich after school programs in Baltimore. 

“An innovation in these programs was that they were offered at city recreation centers, which already have a lot of community members coming to them and are located across the city,” says Hamidi. In the new Space for All project, Hamidi is again partnering with the Digital Harbor Foundation to extend the programs to include youth and young adults with autism.

In the Introducing Synthetic Biology using Biomaker Activities project, Hamidi and his colleagues aim to engage youth and their families in the new field of synthetic biology, which uses computation and design technology to modify biological cells for research and health applications. The field is an important area for community involvement because synthetic biology has complex ethical implications and health applications, Hamidi says. 

Hamidi and his partners will work with youth and their families to collaboratively design and construct engaging learning activities. Possible options include genetically modifying microbes to express color pigments that are then used to paint living art and constructing 3D objects from material containing living fungus.

Art meets science

Hamidi has experience using art as an outreach tool. In 2023, together with Linda Dusman, music, and with support from the Imaging Research Center, he initiated a transdisciplinary project at UMBC to create an art installation called Infinite Transformations. The installation’s center podium displayed a bottle of wine fermented using yeast whose DNA was modified to include an encoded version of a poem by the 14th-century Persian Sufi poet Hafiz. The bottle was surrounded by animation created from large-print microscopic images of the genetically modified yeast and ambient audio fusing the poetry of Hafiz, flute music, and a Morse code representation of the poem.  

“Art can help the public learn about and be exposed to cutting-edge scientific concepts and methods in synthetic biology,” Hamidi says. “We will use the knowledge from the Infinite Transformation project to create hands-on activities for a younger audience to learn about biodesign, bioart, and synthetic biology.” 

UMBC’s national rankings in federal research funding are on the rise based on the NSF’s latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey results, which includes the university being ranked among the nation’s top 10 institutions to receive NASA funding.

The annual HERD survey, conducted by the NSF’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, collects information on research and development (R&D) expenditures by field of research and source of funds and also gathers information on types of research, expenses, and headcounts of R&D personnel. In the latest HERD survey report published in November that compares fiscal year 2023 data, UMBC was ranked #10 in the country in NASA expenditures, a six-spot increase over the previous year’s HERD report. UMBC’s collaboration with NASA in 2024 has resulted in impactful research advances and contributions to active space missions. 

“We have been collaborating with our colleagues at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for three decades now, and today, about 250 UMBC scientists, research faculty, and students are working closely with their civil servant counterparts at Goddard,” says Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research and creative achievement. “All of us are delighted and proud by this top 10 recognition.”

In addition, UMBC has seen improvements in R&D rankings across several disciplines, of which includes the university’s #20 ranking in federal funding for geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences, jumping 13 slots from its 2022 ranking. The university has also seen improvement in federal support for computer and information sciences (now ranked at #54), as well as federal funding for physical sciences (now ranked at #55). 

Overall, the university is now ranked within the top 100 public universities to receive federal research supporting, climbing 11 spots to its new ranking at #96. 

“Over the past two years, our HERD expenditures have increased by more than 70 percent, from $84 million reported in 2021 to $144 million in 2023,” Steiner explains. “This growth, and the corresponding improvement in national rankings, are a direct result of more than a decade focused on developing a true research culture across the campus community, as well as working with faculty members and institutional leaders to provide the research infrastructure needed to support our growing aspirations as a Carnegie R1 institution.”

Review more of UMBC’s research and development expenditure funding in Inquiring Minds, UMBC’s research and creative achievement annual report. 

Nardos Amanuel Kebede has dreamed of receiving the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Graduate Fellowship since high school. The competitive fellowship provides up to $42,000 annually over two years to complete a two-year master’s degree in international affairs. Upon completion, fellows have a five-year appointment as a Foreign Service Officer in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State. While managing her senior-year fall midterms, Kebede received the exciting news that she is one of 45 recipients nationwide of this prestigious fellowship. 

“This is a dream come true. I’ve always been a lifelong public servant. I started serving at a non-governmental organization when I was 11,” says Kebede, who follows in the footsteps of Vivian Ekey ’11, political science and modern languages and linguistics, the first Retriever to receive this fellowship in 2011. Kebede spent the last two summers in the U.S. Foreign Service Intern program.

This unique experience gave her academic and professional training in Washington, D.C., an opportunity to work in a policy office at the U.S. Department of State, and a 10-week assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, where she was born. 

Understanding public service

Kebede’s interest in international diplomacy began during a high school project, where she researched mental health policies and outcomes for young people in Ethiopia and across Africa. This foundation led her to UMBC’s Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program, where she further developed her understanding of public service, civic engagement, and research-based policy and diplomacy. During her first year, Kebede joined UMBC’s McNair Scholars Program, a graduate school mentorship and preparation program, to explore earning a Ph.D. that would lead to becoming a diplomat. Her plans changed during the U.S. Foreign Service Internship Program when she met current Rangel Fellows.  

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to graduate school. I thought I’d be a diplomat the conventional way where I take the Foreign Service Officer Test after undergrad—even though at one point, I considered going straight into a Ph.D. program for comparative politics,” says Kebede. “What changed is that I wanted to become a diplomat first. I would love to work for a number of years as a generalist and then consider transitioning to become a regional specialist. I have always been interested in the East African region.” The Rangel Fellowship gives her the chance to start her foreign service training following a Congressional and U.S. embassy internship and graduation. 

“I am thrilled for Nardos and thrilled for our country to have such an exceptional scholar and citizen as Nardos on track to represent us in the foreign service,” says Laura Antkowiak, director of the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program. “Nardos stands out for so many wonderful qualities, such as her intellectual maturity, her poise and communication skills, her care about what’s happening in the world, her enthusiasm for research that makes an impact, her extensive volunteer and mentorship work on and off campus, and her empathy, integrity, and kindness.”

Strength in numbers

Receiving this award is the culmination of years of hard work, determination, dedication, and being willing to accept help. With funding from the McNair Scholar Research Institute, Kebede had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem to meet prominent Ethio-Israeli leaders and conduct interviews for her independent and ongoing research project titled, “The Generational Evolution of Cultural Identity Amongst Ethiopian Israelis and Its Impact on Integration,” under the mentorship of Brigid Starkey, teaching professor of political science.

Kebede is paying it forward as a McNair Scholars Teaching Fellow, teaching a research methods course, and supporting new scholars. She notes that each step along the way has been shaped by the guidance, encouragement, and collaboration of faculty and peers across the social sciences and the Honors College including UMBC’s Rangel Fellowship advisor, April Householder, director of undergraduate research and prestigious scholarships, who advised Kebede through the application process.

“To end up at this point where I have a direct way to my dream job as a public servant, as a diplomat traveling the world, and representing the United States and the ideals of democracy, free and fair elections, and human rights, it’s a dream come true,” says Kebede. “I have to pinch myself sometimes because I can’t believe I made it to this point.”

Learn more about UMBC’s prestigious scholarships.