For the first time, astronomers have caught the moment when a supermassive black hole flare triggers a mighty wind blasting out into space at relativistic speeds.

The so-called ultrafast outflow, or UFO, was recorded reaching speeds 19 percent of the speed of light in a vacuum – about 57,000 kilometers (35,400 miles) per second. That's not the fastest such outflow ever recorded , but it is the first observation of the onset and evolution of the supermassive black hole flare and the UFO it unleashed.

"We've not watched a black hole create winds this speedily before," says astronomer Liyi Gu of the Space Research Organisation Netherlands (SRON). "For the first time, we've seen how a rapid burst of X-ray light from a black hole immediately triggers ultra-fast winds, with these w

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