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<\/p>\nScientists, using NASA\u2019s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, have discovered a black hole that is continuously snacking on a star that is similar to our Sun. Located in a galaxy around 500 million light-years away from Earth, the black hole\u2019s constant nibbling on the star, a phenomenon known as a tidal disruption event, creates a bright burst of light. This burst of light subsequently lit up the galaxy, which allowed for its discovery.<\/p>\n
The black hole and tidal disruption event \u2014 referred to as Swift J023017.0+283603, or Swift J0230 for short \u2014 is only one part of this story, though, as the discovery was made using a new groundbreaking data analysis method from Swift\u2019s X-ray telescope (XRT) instrument. The technique will allow for a new era of science from Swift, which is a three-telescope space observatory designed to observe highly energetic cosmic phenomena at multiple wavelengths.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSwift\u2019s hardware, software, and the skills of its international team have enabled it to adapt to new areas of astrophysics over its lifetime. Neil Gehrels, the mission\u2019s namesake, oversaw and encouraged many of those transitions. Now, with this new ability, it\u2019s doing even more cool science,\u201d said Swift team member and lead author Phil Evans of the University of Leicester.<\/p>\n
So, what exactly are tidal disruption events?<\/p>\n
As mentioned, tidal disruption events are cosmic phenomena that occur when a star orbits a bit too close to a black hole. When the star approaches the black hole, the immense gravitational forces from the black hole create extreme tides that tear the star apart into a long, thin stream of gas and other cosmic material. One edge of this stream of gas swings around into the black hole while the other end gets thrown out of the system as a whole.<\/p>\n
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Rendering of a tidal disruption event. Note one end of the long stream of gas swinging into the black hole with the other being thrown away from the black hole. (Credit: NASA\/CXC\/U. Michigan\/J. Miller et al.\/M.Weiss)<\/p>\n
When a tidal disruption event occurs, bright flares of multi-wavelength light are created when the stream of gas interacts with a disk of material that is already orbiting the black hole. Scientists will then look for these flares to study the system\u2019s characteristics, size, and more. Furthermore, scientists use the characteristics of the star and black hole to determine the emission they\u2019re seeing from the event, allowing them to create a wide range of different scenarios and behaviors that can be used to categorize tidal disruption events.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Space tourism guides (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n However, not all tidal disruption events result in the immediate destruction of the star. Sometimes, a star will orbit a black hole at a distance where the tidal forces aren\u2019t strong enough to completely destroy the star but still pull gas and material from the star. The star will continue to orbit the black hole until the star loses too much gas and material and finally disintegrates. These events are referred to as partial tidal disruptions or repeating tidal disruptions, and Swift J0230 is one of these events.<\/p>\n Other examples of repeating tidal disruptions include an event wherein an outburst of energy occurred once every 114 days, which could have been caused by a star orbiting a black hole with 78 million times the mass of our Sun. Another repeating disruption event saw a burst of energy once every nine hours from a black hole with a mass equal to that of 400,000 Suns.<\/p>\n Swift\u2019s XRT first observed Swift J0230 on June 22, 2022. The instrument noticed a bright flash of light from within a galaxy located 500 million light-years away in the Triangulum constellation. After its initial sighting of the flare, XRT continued observing the galaxy and noted nine additional flares once every few weeks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n