{"id":22912,"date":"2023-01-13T16:39:09","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T15:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=134873"},"modified":"2023-01-13T18:36:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T17:36:36","slug":"hubble-space-telescope-spots-hungry-black-hole-twisting-star-into-doughnut-shape-and-chowing-down-on-it","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/hubble-space-telescope-spots-hungry-black-hole-twisting-star-into-doughnut-shape-and-chowing-down-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Hubble Space Telescope spots hungry black hole twisting star into doughnut shape and chowing down on it"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jason Goodyer\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 13 January 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Just call it the Homer Simpson of black holes<\/a>. Astronomers using NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope<\/a> have observed a black hole twisting a nearby star into a doughnut shape before consuming it.<\/p>\n

The violent cosmic occurrence is an example of a tidal disruption event \u2013 an astronomical phenomenon that occurs when a star strays close enough to a black hole to be ripped apart by the immense gravitational forces<\/a>. After the star has been ripped apart, the black hole then devours the resulting gas and debris while belching out intense radiation.<\/p>\n

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1. A normal star passes near a supermassive black hole in the centre of a galaxy. 2. The star\u2019s outer gasses are pulled into the black hole\u2019s gravitational field. 3. The star is shredded as tidal forces pull it apart. 4. The stellar remnants are pulled into a doughnut-shaped ring around the black hole, and will eventually fall into the black hole, unleashing a tremendous amount of light and high-energy radiation.<\/span><\/figcaption> \u00a9NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Named AT2022dsb, the event is occurring nearly 300 million light-years away from Earth at the centre of the galaxy ESO 583-G004. It was first spotted on 1 March 2022 by the\u00a0All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae<\/a>\u00a0(ASAS-SN), a network of ground-based telescopes that scours the sky looking for violent events.<\/p>\n

The team then used Hubble\u2019s powerful ultraviolet imaging capabilities to study the cosmic chow down in fine detail as it unfolded.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, these events are hard to observe. You get maybe a few observations at the beginning of the disruption when it\u2019s really bright. Our program is different in that it is designed to look at a few tidal events over a year to see what happens,\u201d said co-researcher Peter Maksym<\/a> of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw this early enough that we could observe it at these very intense black hole accretion stages. We saw the accretion rate drop as it turned to a trickle over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

After studying the Hubble data, the researchers concluded that the remains of the star have formed a doughnut-shaped ring of gas the size of the Solar System that is encircling the black hole as it is sucked in.<\/p>\n

They hope that further studying the event, and others like it, will help them learn more about the lifecycle of black holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really are still getting our heads around the event. You shred the star and then it\u2019s got this material that\u2019s making its way into the black hole,\u201d said Maksym.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you\u2019ve got models where you think you know what is going on, and then you\u2019ve got what you actually see. This is an exciting place for scientists to be: right at the interface of the known and the unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about black holes:<\/strong><\/p>\n