Black Hole Eating a Giant Star Reveals Cosmic Secrets
Astronomers recently witnessed an extraordinary event where a supermassive black hole devoured a massive star, providing new insights into mysterious cosmic phenomena. This event, named AT2023vto, is the brightest of its kind ever observed—nearly ten times brighter than any similar event before. At first, scientists even mistook it for a supernova because of its intense…
Astronomers recently witnessed an extraordinary event where a supermassive black hole devoured a massive star, providing new insights into mysterious cosmic phenomena.
This event, named AT2023vto, is the brightest of its kind ever observed—nearly ten times brighter than any similar event before. At first, scientists even mistook it for a supernova because of its intense brightness. Edo Berger and his team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered that this event happened when a star, nine times bigger than our Sun, was torn apart by a supermassive black hole about 10 million times more massive than the Sun.
Finding such a large star so close to a black hole is unusual and raises questions about how stars can form in such extreme environments.This discovery might also help explain strange, bright flashes seen in some galaxies, known as ambiguous nuclear transients (ANTs).
These flashes could be a new kind of event involving very massive stars, and if so, AT2023vto might be the key to understanding them.Overall, observing AT2023vto gives scientists a better understanding of the complex processes happening in the centers of galaxies, including how stars form and how massive black holes evolve.
Reference: arXiv DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2408.01482
Sharmeen Khan is a freelance writer at SciTech Magazine.
Sharmeen Khan is an expert in astrophysics and space technology, hailing from Pakistan. With a strong academic background and a passion for the cosmos, she has conducted extensive research in these fields. Sharmeen also gained valuable experience as an intern at SUPARCO, Pakistan's national space agency. Her work has been recognized in various scientific publications, and she is dedicated to advancing our understanding of space. Sharmeen is committed to inspiring the next generation of scientists through her outreach and educational efforts.