SPACE — Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute of Astronomy (IfA) have just discovered the scene of a star massacre event. The culprit is a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the galaxy NGC 3799, about 160 million light years from Earth.
Using the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) system on February 22, 2023, the team of astronomers initially detected a spike in brightness, and it was suddenly followed by a rapid dimming. Nothing more, the light is a torn star, which was immediately devoured by a black hole in an event called ASASSN-23bd.
“While star-destroying black holes have been seen before, this (event) is the first time we’ve looked this close using visible light,” said Willem Hoogendam, an IfA graduate student who co-led the research.
According to him, the incident provides a better understanding of how black holes grow and collect material around them. Follow-up observations have been made with the IfA Asteroid Terrestrial Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope on Maunaloa and Haleakala, the WM Keck Observatory on Maunakea, and other ground- and space-based observatories.
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Hogendam, working with fellow IfA graduate student Jason Hinkle and faculty advisor Ben Shappee, analyzed all the data. They confirmed that the explosion of brightness that occurred was caused by a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE).
TDE occurs when a star gets too close to the SMBH and is torn apart by its strong gravitational force. The black hole then devours the mass of the star. The researchers’ findings will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
“This discovery suggests that black holes ripping apart nearby stars may be more common than previously thought, we just haven’t seen this happen very often,” Hogendam said.
Rare
The intense brightness produced by the star’s mass entering the black hole creates a luminous flare, which can be observed by sky survey devices such as ASAS-SN. Previously, such events had always been detected far from Earth.
However, the ASASSN-23bd event was an unusually close TDE. That makes it an excellent subject for further study.
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The following is the difference between ASASSN-23bd and other TDEs:
– Consumes much less energy than other TDEs.
2024-03-07 10:11:00
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