Astronomers have observed the closest supermassive black hole to a star. This is a diagram of a stellar debris. (NASA)
[The Epoch Times, March 09, 2024](Epoch Times reporter Chen Juncun reported) American astronomers observed that a star is being torn apart by a supermassive black hole. This is the closest astronomical phenomenon known to have been observed with visible light.
The University of Hawai’i stated in a press release on March 5 that astronomers from the school’s Institute for Astronomy had observed the closest event to date involving a supermassive black hole shredding a star.
Willem Hoogendam, a graduate student at the Institute of Astronomy who co-led the study, said: “Although events of black holes destroying stars have been observed before, this is the first time we have observed it at such a close distance using visible light.”
“This may give us a better understanding of how supermassive black holes grow and collect material around them,” he said.
Using the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae telescope system, the research team first detected on February 22, 2023, that the galaxy named NGC 3799 suddenly brightened after rapidly dimming. . The galaxy is approximately 160 million light-years away from Earth.
In subsequent observations, the research team analyzed data obtained by multiple ground and space telescopes such as the Keck Observatory (WM Keck Observatory). They concluded that the sudden increase in the galaxy’s brightness was caused by a Tidal Disruption Event.
TDEs occur when a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole and is torn apart and swallowed up by the black hole’s powerful gravity.
“This discovery shows that events like black holes tearing apart nearby stars may be more common than we previously thought, we just don’t see it happening often,” Hugendam said.
The intense light produced when a black hole swallows a star’s mass creates a bright flare that can be observed by systems like the Automated All-Sky Supernova Survey. Although these sky surveys have detected such events before, finding them so close is rare. This makes this discovery an excellent subject for further research.
The above research results were published in the British “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society”.
Editor in charge: Ye Ziwei#
