NASA | Massive Black Hole Shreds Passing Star
This artist’s rendering illustrates new findings about a star shredded by a black hole. When a star wanders too close to a black hole, intense tidal forces rip the star apart. In these events, called “tidal disruptions,” some of the stellar debris is flung outward at high speed while the rest falls toward the black hole. This causes a distinct X-ray flare that can last for a few years. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer, and ESA/NASA’s XMM-Newton collected different pieces of this astronomical puzzle in a tidal disruption event called ASASSN-14li, which was found in an optical search by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) in November 2014. The event occurred near a supermassive black hole estimated to weigh a few million times the mass of the sun in the center of PGC 043234, a galaxy that lies about 290 million light-years away. Astronomers hope to find more events like ASASSN-14li to test theoretical models about how black holes affect their environments.
During the tidal disruption event, filaments containing much of the star's mass fall toward the black hole. Eventually these gaseous filaments merge into a smooth, hot disk glowing brightly in X-rays. As the disk forms, its central region heats up tremendously, which drives a flow of material, called a wind, away from the disk.
Music credit: Encompass by Mark Petrie from Killer Tracks.
-
LIVE
AP4Liberty
1 hour agoStriking Union Boss Lives in Luxe Mansion
633 watching -
12:23
IsaacButterfield
1 day ago $0.11 earnedOur Freedom Is UNDER ATTACK
10.2K16 -
17:51
Degenerate Jay
16 hours agoThis Is Ruining Superhero Games
29.5K3 -
10:48
Adam Does Movies
16 hours agoThe Penguin Episode 2 Review + Recap - Let's Dance!
13.3K -
12:00
Bearing
23 hours agoAngry Feminist Clementine Ford's 'Bizarre' Taylor Swift Tribute Show - Audience DEMANDS REFUND 🤣
14.9K17 -
3:02:53
Fresh and Fit
11 hours agoAfter Hours w/ Girls
99.7K131 -
3:27:42
Tate Speech by Andrew Tate
9 hours agoEMERGENCY MEETING EPISODE 78 - OVERTON WINDOW
274K342 -
14:49
Colion Noir
12 hours agoTim Walz Says I’ve Become Friends With School Shooters During Vice President Debate
72.3K76 -
1:22:45
Kim Iversen
15 hours agoIsraeli Hasbara Or Iranian Propaganda, Who Is Telling The Truth?
143K253 -
1:55:23
Glenn Greenwald
16 hours agoTim Walz Again Defends State Sponsored Censorship; Julian Assange Recognized As Political Prisoner; Post-VP Debate Interviews | SYSTEM UPDATE #345
137K346