A giant black hole has been caught red-handed in the act of
stellar cannibalism by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. This is the first time
astronomers have seen the whole process of a black hole eating up a star, from
its first scene to nearly final bites.
For perhaps thousands of years, the black hole rested
quietly deep inside an unnamed elliptical galaxy. But then a star ventured a
little too close to the sleeping black hole it was torn to shreds by the force
of its gravity. "The star just couldn't hold itself together," said
Gezari, Part of the shredded star swirled around the black hole, then began to
plunge into it, triggering a bright ultraviolet flare that the Galaxy Evolution
Explorer was able to detect.
"This type of event is very rare, so we are lucky to
study the entire process from beginning to end," said Dr. Suvi Gezari of
the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif, adding, "Now that
we know we can observe these events with ultraviolet light, we've got a new
tool for finding more . Gezari is lead author of a new paper appearing in the
Dec. 10 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters
The newfound feeding black hole is thought to be tens of
millions times as massive as our sun. Its host galaxy is located 4 billion
light-years away in the Bootes constellation.
An artist's concept and additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer is online at http://www.nasa.gov/galex/ .
The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., leads the Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission and is responsible for science operations and data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, manages the mission and built the science instrument. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Researchers sponsored by Yonsei University in South Korea and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France collaborated on this mission.
An artist's concept and additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer is online at http://www.nasa.gov/galex/ .
The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., leads the Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission and is responsible for science operations and data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, manages the mission and built the science instrument. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Researchers sponsored by Yonsei University in South Korea and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France collaborated on this mission.
NASA
Cannibal Serial Child Killer video
ReplyDelete