A press release about a black hole feeding from a star that is 32 million light years away from The Milky Way… http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/press/11_releases/press_072711.html

According to the release, scientists’ consider this data the first evidence of gases being compressed at an observable and precise distance that has been named “The Bondii Radius”. The astrophysicts are complexed by the idea that based on the amount of mass entering the black hole, it continues to remain dim.  They are now rethinking the mass:energy conversion by all black holes which are currently considered to be at the heart of every galaxy.

If the conversion from mass to energy is not as efficient as predicted…where are the losses? Is there any possibilty that some is converted to sound? My guess is no as there is no ‘reciever’ but if heat/ deformation/other forms of radiation take up the mass, couldn’t they be detected with other scopes? Is there a relationship between distance from black hole edge/black hole diameter and where plasma is created with respect to the Bondii radius? Does the position vary as gravity intensifies/black hole age?