Impressive images from space by NASA which presented moment by moment the movements of a black hole that “devours” and destroys a wandering star.
Several NASA telescopes recently observed a massive black hole tearing apart a nearby star, about 250 million light-years from Earth.
These are recent observations that could provide details on the complex and inexplicable – for now – way in which black holes behave, while it is noted that this is one of five total extinctions of stars by black holes ever recorded by astronomers.
As can be seen in the impressive video, the astronomers suddenly noticed an uncontrolled growth of high-energy X-rays emitted from the black hole which began to “encircle” the star and that’s when it came under its gravitational control. This process is called “crown”.
NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescopic Array) satellite is the most “sensitive” space telescope capable of detecting such wavelengths of light, and its close-up approach provided remarkable insights into how these “crowns” form and function, according to a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal.
The move demonstrates how the destruction of a star by a black hole – a process formally known as tidal disruption and which can take anywhere from a few weeks to months – could be used to understand exactly what happens to the material captured by them before their extinction.
Most black holes that scientists can study are surrounded by hot gas that has accumulated over many years—sometimes even millennia—and formed disks billions of miles wide. In some cases, these disks are brighter than entire galaxies.
