Black holes massively devour stars

Scientists at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy have spotted a black hole-devoured star in data from a survey of just 15 galaxies. It is a very small próba by the standards accepted in astronomy. However, each of these 15 galaxies is currently in the process of colliding with another galaxy.

Until now it was thought that such phenomena were extremely rare and happened once in about 10–100,000 years. However, it turns out that Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs), as they are referred to, occur much more frequently precisely during galaxy collisions.

– Our study shows that the frequency of TDEs increases dramatically during galaxy collisions. This is probably due to the fact that such collisions lead to the formation of a large number of stars near black holes in the centers of these galaxies – Said James Mullaney of the University of Sheffield, który was involved in the research.

– If the phenomenon of cosmic cannibalism actually occurred every 10,000 years, in próbie 15 galaxies over a period of 10 years would have 1.5 percent of the. chances of observing TDEs,” said astrophysicist Clive Tadhunter in an interview with the New Atlas service. – Although we can not rule out the luck of the Sheffield researchers, it is unlikely – he added.

Data for the research was obtained from the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, the Hubble Space Telescope'a and the Catalina Sky Survey program. syndromeół scientistów first observed 15 colliding galaxies in 2005. 10 years póLater it was noticed that one of the previously observed galaxies had significantly changed its appearance.

After digging into previously collected data, it turned out that in 2010 the galaxy F01004-2237, która made the researchers curious about the change in appearance, she noted the increase in brightness means. This happens when a star is torn apart by a black hole. A huge amount of energy is then released. Galactic nuclei can shine much brighter in such cases.

In this wayób TDEs can be used by scientists to determine the position of previously unknown black holes, whichóre are faintly visible due to their gigantic gravity.