Telescopes Capture Black Hole’s Spaghetti Star Dinner

Telescopes Capture Black Hole’s Spaghetti Star Dinner Cubs, you heard it right… black hole was captured eating a star as spaghetti for dinner. Astronomers from around the world spotted a star undergoing spaghettification that is being ripped apart by the supermassive black hole. This phenomenon also known as ‘tidal disruption event’ is the closest event ever recorded at just over 215 million light-years from Earth (one light-year is the distance light travels in a year which is about 10 trillion kilometers). The team of researchers carried out observations over a 6-month period of AT2019qiz, located in the spiral galaxy in the constellation of Eridanus and have presented their research in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society published on October 12, 2020. Supermassive black holes are object millions to billion times the sun’s mass that lurk in the hearts of most galaxies. Whenever a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole the extreme gravitational pull of the black hole shreds the star into thin streams of material. As some of the thin strands fall into the black hole during this spaghettification process, a bright flare of energy is released which can be detected by the astronomers. Although powerful and bright, up to now astronomers have had trouble investigating this burst of light which is often obscured by a curtain of dust and debris. But now the researchers have found that, when a black hole devours a star, it can launch a powerful blast of material outwards that obstructs the view. This happens because the energy released as the black hole eats up stellar material propels the star’s debris outwards. This discovery was made possible only because the tidal disruption team identified the event right after the star was ripped apart. The researchers

pointed a suite of ground based and space telescopes in that direction to see how the light is produced. The idea of a black hole sucking in a nearby star sounds like science fiction. But this is exactly what happens in a tidal disruption event said Matt Nicholl, a lecturer and Royal Astronomical Society Research fellow in a statement of European Southern Observatory. Researchers caught the event in action using numerous telescopes, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope and New Technology Telescope. Cubs, researchers believe that this finding will help them better understand supermassive black hole and how matter behaves in the extreme gravity environment around it and also help solve further mysteries of black hole physics. Inquisitive Cubs contains the News Savannah segment which features national, international and sports news focusing on Curated content in kids friendly language and age appropriate colourful images. Kids news Articles not merely report the happenings around the world but also explain the context of the news and its impact. Sign Up Now!