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One black hole at the center of the quasar SDSS J1011+5442 appears to have actually vanished, which has made the mass of energy unidentifiable. Even though the team of researchers that is probing the issue knows that the black hole exists, it seems to have consumed the gas around it over the past decade, which prevents the team from identifying the spectroscopic signature of the quasar, according to results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

"This is the first time we've seen a quasar shut off this dramatically, this quickly," Jessie Runnoe, the first author of the study, said in a press release.

With information from spectrum measurements of SDSS J1011+5442, right back in in 2003, the team made a comparative analysis of the information to spectrum measurements in 2015. They could understand the properties of the gas swallowed by the black hole.

"The difference was stunning and unprecedented," said John Ruan, co-author of the study. "The hydrogen-alpha emission dropped by a factor of 50 in less than twelve years, and the quasar now looks like a normal galaxy. The change was so great that throughout the SDSS collaboration and astronomy community, the quasar became known as a "changing-look quasar."

A giant black hole is at the bottom of every quasar. The hole is so huge that gas falling into it can reach huge temperatures reaching millions of degrees. The bright, hot gas can be investigated from earth. Yet, in the case of SDSS J1011+5442, the team believes that the quasar "expended" its glowing-hot gas, making it show a significant reduction in the brightness.

"Essentially, it has run out of food, at least for the moment," Runnoe said. "We were fortunate to catch it before and after."

The study has been submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and the pre-print of the study is available at arXiv.org.