Science and Tech

Unusual view of a black hole eating a star

In this illustration, a disk of hot gas swirls around a black hole.  The gas stream extending to the right is what is left of a star that was disintegrated by the black hole.


In this illustration, a disk of hot gas swirls around a black hole. The gas stream extending to the right is what is left of a star that was disintegrated by the black hole. -NASA/JPL-CALTECH

Dec. 20 () –

Multiple NASA telescopes have recently observed a huge black hole tearing apart an unlucky star that got too close.

Located about 250 million light years from Earth, at the center of another galaxy, is the fifth-closest example of a star-destroying black hole ever observed, reports NASA.

Once the black hole’s gravity completely broke the star apart, astronomers observed a dramatic increase in high-energy X-ray light around the black hole. This indicated that, as stellar material was dragged towards its doom, it formed an extremely hot structure above the black hole called the corona.

NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescopic Array) satellite is the most sensitive space telescope capable of observing these wavelengths of light, and the proximity of the event provided unprecedented insight into the formation and evolution of the corona, according to a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The work demonstrates how the destruction of a star by a black hole – a process formally known as a tidal disruption event – could be used to better understand what happens to the material. that he is captured by one of these giants before being completely devoured.

Most of the black holes that scientists can study are surrounded by hot gas that has built up over many years, sometimes millennia, and has formed disks billions of kilometers wide. In some cases, these disks outshine entire galaxies. Even around these bright sources, but especially around much less active black holes, a single star stands out, tearing apart and burning away. And from start to finish, the process usually takes only a few weeks or months. The observability and short duration of tidal disturbance events make them especially attractive to astronomers, who can unravel how the black hole’s gravity manipulates the material around it, creating incredible light shows and new physical features.

“Tidal disturbances are a kind of cosmic laboratory,” says Suvi Gezari, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and co-author of the study. “They are our window into a real-time feed from a huge black hole lurking in the center of a galaxy.”

The new study focuses on an event called AT2021ehb, which took place in a galaxy with a central black hole whose mass is about 10 million times that of our Sun (about the difference between a bowling ball and the Titanic). During this tidal disturbance, the side of the star closest to the black hole was pushed on with more force than the side farthest from the star, stretching the whole thing out and leaving nothing but a long noodle of hot gas.

Scientists believe that the gas stream swirls around the black hole during these types of events, colliding with itself. This is believed to create shock waves and outward gas flows that generate visible light, as well as wavelengths not visible to the human eye, such as ultraviolet light and X-rays.

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