Massive black hole turns star into ‘spaghetti’
Print Edition
Astronomers have captured the moment a supermassive black hole shredded a star the size of the Sun, releasing images yesterday showing the devastating process in unprecedented detail.
Using telescopes from the European Southern Observatory, they were able to monitor light flaring from the process — known as a tidal disruption event — from a black hole just over 215 million light years from Earth.
They observed the star being physically torn apart as it was sucked into the black hole’s giant maw.
“The idea of a black hole ‘sucking in’ a nearby star sounds like science fiction,” said Matt Nicholl, a lecturer and Royal Astronomical Society research fellow at the University of Birmingham, lead author of yesterday’s study.
“But that’s exactly what happens in a tidal disruption event.”
When a star strays too close to a supermassive black hole, it is subjected to the phenomenal strength of the black hole’s gravity.
The star can be physically torn apart and its matter pulled into long strings, a process known as “spaghettification.”
“When these forces exceed the star’s cohesive force, the star loses pieces that rush into the black hole,” said Stephane Basa, a researcher from the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory.
“This exceptional influx of matter produces intense electromagnetic emissions, which last for several months while the debris is digested.”
Basa said that around only half of the star remained after the tidal disruption event.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
