black hole

When a star strays too close to a black hole, intense tides break it apart into a stream of gas. The tail of the stream escapes the system, while the rest of it swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. This video includes images of a tidal disruption event called ASASSN-19bt taken by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Swift missions, as well as an animation showing how the event unfolded. Image via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Watch: NASA space probe captures black hole tearing apart a star [video]

Catching such a rare event in action will help astronomers understand the physics of a black hole.

black hole

When a star strays too close to a black hole, intense tides break it apart into a stream of gas. The tail of the stream escapes the system, while the rest of it swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. This video includes images of a tidal disruption event called ASASSN-19bt taken by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Swift missions, as well as an animation showing how the event unfolded. Image via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) captured an extremely rare cosmic event: a black hole ripping apart a star the size of our Sun.

The star was torn apart about by the cataclysmic gravitational forces of a black hole, in what is known as a tidal disruption event (TDE). The findings were shared in the Astrophysical Journal.

How does a tidal disruption event occur?

TDEs occur when a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole — objects with immense gravitational pull that are thought to lie at the centre of most large galaxies. 

Some of the star’s remains were flung into space, while the rest formed a bright disk before collapsing into the black hole. This was the first time in the history of space exploration that a TDE was witnessed.

Astronomer Thomas Holoien from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC explains that only a handful of TDEs have been discovered “before they reached peak brightness.”

He added that this TDE was discovered a few days after it started to brighten, which makes the star and black hole – known collectively as ASASSN-19bt – the “new poster child for TDE research.”

Better understanding of how black holes work

By observing the disc of light, astronomers will better understand the physics of a black hole, in essence, understanding what ‘makes a black hole tick.’ Holoien adds:

“Thanks to it being in what’s called TESS’ ‘Continuous Viewing Zone,’ we have observations of it every 30 minutes going back months — more than ever before possible for one of these events.”

He adds that astronomers once thought “all TDEs would look the same,” but says that astronomers just needed the “ability to make more detailed observations.”

“Recent sky survey projects like ASAS-SN have revealed new features of TDEs that we have not seen before — although we don’t have enough information yet to say whether these variances are common. We have so much more to learn about how they work, which is why capturing one at such an early time and having the exquisite TESS observations was crucial.”

Watch: Star being ripped apart by a black hole

First captured image of a black hole

Back in April, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) captured the first image of a supermassive black hole at the centre of our Milkyway galaxy from 55 million light-years away.

At the time, EHT Director, Shep Doeleman described the breakthrough in science as a “one-way door out of our universe”. He said scientists can now “see what we thought was unseeable”:

“This is a landmark in astronomy, an unprecedented scientific feat accomplished by a team of more than 200 researchers. [The] result would have presumed to be impossible just a generation ago”.