Massive Black Hole Shreds Passing Star ✨️

This artist's rendering reflects new discoveries about a star torn apart by a black hole. When a star orbits too close to a black hole, intense tidal forces rip the star apart. In these events, called "tidal destructions," some of the stellar debris is thrown outward at high speeds 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, the Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer, and ESA/NASA's XMM-Newton put together the various pieces of this astronomical puzzle in the oceanic disturbance event ASASSN-14li, which was found in an all-sky optical search. went. Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) in 2014 November. The event occurred near a supermassive black hole a few million times the mass of the Sun at the center of PGC 043234, a galaxy about 290 million light-years away. Astronomers hope to find more events like ASASSN-14li to test theoretical models of how black holes affect their environments.

During a tidal disruption event, most of the star's mass-containing filaments collapse toward the black hole. Eventually these gaseous filaments coalesce into a smooth, hot disk that glows in X-rays. As the disc forms, its central region becomes very hot, driving a flow of material, called wind, away from the disc.