X-ray: NASA/CXC/Queen’s Univ. Belfast/M. Nicholl et
al.; Optical/IR: PanSTARRS, NSF/Legacy Survey/SDSS; Illustration: Soheb Mandhai
/ The Astro Phoenix; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
NASA’s Chandra X-ray
Observatory and other telescopes have identified a supermassive
black hole that has torn apart one star and is now using that stellar wreckage to pummel
another star or smaller black hole, as described in our latest press release. This research helps connect two cosmic mysteries and provides information
about the environment around some of the bigger types of black holes.
This artist’s
illustration shows a disk of material (red, orange, and yellow) that was created
after a supermassive black hole (depicted on the right) tore apart a star
through intense tidal
forces. Over the
course of a few years, this disk expanded outward until it intersected with
another object — either a star or a small black hole — that is also in orbit
around the giant black hole. Each time this object crashes into the disk, it
sends out a burst of X-rays detected by Chandra. The inset shows Chandra
data (purple) and an optical image of the source from Pan-STARRS (red, green, and blue).
In 2019, an optical telescope in
California noticed a burst of light that astronomers later categorized as a
“tidal disruption event”, or TDE. These are cases where black holes tear stars
apart if they get too close through their powerful tidal forces. Astronomers
gave this TDE the name of AT2019qiz.
Meanwhile, scientists were also
tracking instances of another type of cosmic phenomena occasionally observed
across the Universe. These were brief and regular bursts of X-rays that were
near supermassive black holes. Astronomers named these events “quasi-periodic
eruptions,” or QPEs.
This latest study gives scientists
evidence that TDEs and QPEs are likely connected. The researchers think that
QPEs arise when an object smashes into the disk left behind after the TDE.
While there may be other explanations, the authors of the study propose this is
the source of at least some QPEs.
In 2023, astronomers used both
Chandra and Hubble to simultaneously study the debris left behind after the
tidal disruption had ended. The Chandra data were obtained during three
different observations, each separated by about 4 to 5 hours. The total exposure
of about 14 hours of Chandra time revealed only a weak signal in the first and
last chunk, but a very strong signal in the middle observation.
From there, the researchers used
NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) to look frequently at
AT2019qiz for repeated X-ray bursts. The NICER data showed that AT2019qiz
erupts roughly every 48 hours. Observations from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift
Observatory and India’s AstroSat telescope cemented the finding.
The ultraviolet data from Hubble, obtained at the same time as
the Chandra observations, allowed the scientists to determine the size of the
disk around the supermassive black hole. They found that the disk had become
large enough that if any object was orbiting the black hole and took about a
week or less to complete an orbit, it would collide with the disk and cause
eruptions.
This result has implications for
searching for more quasi-periodic eruptions associated with tidal disruptions.
Finding more of these would allow astronomers to measure the prevalence and
distances of objects in close orbits around supermassive black holes. Some of
these may be excellent targets for the planned future gravitational
wave observatories.
The paper describing these results
appears in the October 9, 2024 issue of the journal Nature. The first author of
the paper is Matt Nicholl (Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland) and the full
list of authors can be found in the paper, which is available online at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.02181
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s
Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts,
and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Read
more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray
Observatory and its mission here:
Visual Description
This release features an artist’s
rendering that illustrates the destructive power of a supermassive black hole.
The digital image depicts a disk of stellar material surrounding one such black
hole. At its outer edge a neighboring star is colliding with and flying through
the disk.
The black hole sits halfway down
our right edge of the vertical image. It resembles a jet black semicircle with
a domed cap of pale blue light. The bottom half of the circular black hole is
hidden behind the disk of stellar material. In this illustration, the disk is
viewed edge on. It resembles a band of swirling yellow, orange, and red gas,
cutting diagonally from our middle right toward our lower left.
Near our lower left, the outer edge
of the stellar debris disk overlaps with a bright blue sphere surrounded by
luminous white swirls. This sphere represents a neighboring star crashing
through the disk. The stellar disk is the wreckage of a destroyed star. An
electric blue and white wave shows the hottest gas in the disk.
As the neighboring star crashes
through the disk it leaves behind a trail of gas depicted as streaks of fine
mist. Bursts of X-rays are released and are detected by Chandra.
Superimposed in the upper left corner of the illustration is an inset box showing a close up image of the source in X-ray and optical light. X-ray light is shown as purple and optical light is white and beige.
By: Lee Mohon
Source: Black Hole Destroys Star, Goes After Another, NASA Missions Find - NASA
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