Scientists report that black holes of very different sizes appear to obey the same rule when producing powerful jets. The pattern holds from small stellar-mass black holes up to the supermassive giants at the centers of galaxies.
In particular, supermassive black holes can emit jets soon after tearing apart a star in a tidal disruption event, then switch off and fire up again hundreds or thousands of days later. This behavior may mirror what happens on much smaller scales.
Because the same pattern shows up across such different masses, researchers think the underlying physics may be universal. The jets are likely governed by the same process regardless of a black hole's size, according to the study.