JERUSALEM, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- An international team of astronomers has observed a supermassive black hole tearing apart a star far from a galactic center for the first time, challenging long-held assumptions about where black holes reside and how they behave.
A tidal disruption event (TDE) occurs when a star wanders too close to a massive black hole and is pulled apart by its immense gravity.
The event, designated "AT 2024tvd," occurred about 2,600 light-years from the core of its host galaxy. The researchers said they have never seen such bright radio emission from a black hole tearing apart a star away from a galaxy's center before.
The team discovered the unusual TDE through several of the world's premier radio telescopes, including the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in Chile, the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Large Array (AMI-LA) in Britain, as well as the Allen Telescope Array, the Submillimeter Array, and the Very Large Array in the United States.
According to the study published in The Astrophysical Journal, the observation revealed two separate bursts of radio waves months apart, which suggests the black hole did not launch energy right after destroying the star, but took time for the material to be thrown out.
Astronomers from the Hebrew University in Israel led the observations with the AMI-LA telescope, which is key in unveiling the unusually rapid evolution of the radio emission.
The researchers said that the delay reveals black holes can behave in complex and surprising ways, which is proof that black holes can become active again after being quiet.
They concluded that the discovery helps learning more about the hidden lives of black holes and may lead to new ideas about how they grow and change. ■
