Supermassive Black Hole Unleashes Star's Debris on Nearby Celestial Body
Astronomers reveal that a black hole's tidal disruption event is linked to quasi-periodic eruptions of X-rays, solving a longstanding cosmic mystery.
- In 2019, a supermassive black hole shredded a star, creating a debris disk that now impacts another star or small black hole every 48 hours.
- The event, known as AT2019qiz, was first detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility and has been studied using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes.
- The collision of the orbiting star with the debris disk generates bursts of X-rays, providing evidence that links tidal disruption events to quasi-periodic eruptions.
- This discovery helps astronomers understand the environments around supermassive black holes and may aid future gravitational wave observatories.
- The research, led by Queen's University Belfast, is published in the journal Nature, marking a significant advancement in black hole studies.