Swift’s XRT observed nine additional outbursts from the same location roughly every few weeks.Įvans and his team propose that Swift J0230 is a repeating tidal disruption of a Sun-like star orbiting a black hole with over 200,000 times the Sun’s mass. It lit up in a galaxy around 500 million light-years away in the northern constellation Triangulum. On June 22, 2022, the XRT captured Swift J0230 for the first time. Another recurred every nine hours around a black hole with 400,000 times the Sun’s mass, likely caused by an orbiting stellar cinder called a white dwarf. Previous examples include an outburst that occurred every 114 days, potentially caused by a giant star orbiting a black hole with 78 million times the Sun’s mass. The characteristics of the individual star and black hole system determine what kind of emission scientists observe, creating a wide array of behaviors to categorize. The process repeats until the star loses too much gas and finally breaks apart. Recently, astronomers have been investigating variations on this phenomena, which they call partial or repeating tidal disruptions.ĭuring these events, every time an orbiting star passes close to a black hole, the star bulges outward and sheds material, but survives. Astronomers see them as flares of multiwavelength light created when the debris collides with a disk of material already orbiting the black hole. These destructive episodes are called tidal disruption events. The leading edge swings around the black hole, and the trailing edge escapes the system. When a star strays too close to a monster black hole, gravitational forces create intense tides that break the star apart into a stream of gas.

You may unsubscribe at any time.Įvans led a study about the unlucky star and its hungry black hole, collectively called Swift J023017.0+283603 (or Swift J0230 for short), which was published in Nature Astronomy. By subscribing, you agree to receive email related to Lab Manager content and products.

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