The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
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Black Hole Meal Sets Record for Length and Size

  • XJ1500+0154: An X-ray source located in a small galaxy about 1.8 billion light years from Earth. This artists illustration depicts what astronomers call a "tidal disruption event," or TDE, when an object such as a star wanders too close to a black hole and is destroyed by tidal forces generated from the black hole's intense gravitational forces. A trio of X-ray telescopes including Chandra witnessed a TDE that has lasted more than a decade, much longer than any previously observed TDE. This implies that the event involved either the most massive star to be completely ripped apart and devoured by a black hole or the first instance where a smaller star was completely ripped apart.

    XJ1500+0154: An X-ray source located in a small galaxy about 1.8 billion light years from Earth. This artists illustration depicts what astronomers call a "tidal disruption event," or TDE, when an object such as a star wanders too close to a black hole and is destroyed by tidal forces generated from the black hole's intense gravitational forces. A trio of X-ray telescopes including Chandra witnessed a TDE that has lasted more than a decade, much longer than any previously observed TDE. This implies that the event involved either the most massive star to be completely ripped apart and devoured by a black hole or the first instance where a smaller star was completely ripped apart.

    X-ray: NASA/CXC/UNH/D.Lin et al, Optical: CFHT, Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

    Low Resolution Image