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[Science] Moment of a Supermassive Black Hole Swallowing a Star Captured
- DATE
- 2011-08-31
Moment of a Supermassive Black Hole Swallowing a Star Captured
An international joint research team including seven Korean researchers captured a moment when a supermassive black hole* breaks apart and swallows a nearby star.
*A supermassive black hole has a mass of approximately 1 million to 1 billion times more than the mass of the Sun, and is believed to be located in the centers of most galaxies, including the Milky Way.
The research was conducted by an international joint research team composed of 58
scientists from the US (NASA), Korea, Italy, the UK, Japan, and Taiwan, among whom are five researchers of the Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe and J. B. Jeon and H. I. Sung of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute. The Korean team was led by Myung-shin Im, professor of Seoul National University.
The research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of Korea through the Leading Scientists Support Program, and its article titled “Relativistic jet activity from the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole” was published in one of the most prestigious journals in the world, Nature, on August 25.
Various observational facilities including the 1.8m telescope at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory were used for the research.
The team discovered the tidal disruption event of a star by the massive black hole.
It has been believed among astronomers that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their centers, with a strong force to draw and break apart nearby stars. According to the theory, bursts of light are produced while the debris of destroyed stars falls into the black hole. However, the onset of the event was never been observed and the theory had not been proven.
On March 28th, the research team found a class of transient sources at the center of a galaxy 3.9 billion light years away from the Earth through the Swift – satellite of NASA, - and named the celestial body “Swift J1644+57.”
After analyzing how Swift J1644+57 changes its brightness, the team revealed that powerful jets of plasma emerged from the black hole in a certain direction when debris of a star disrupted by the tidal force accreted to the black hole.
In particular, among five types of data on visible ray, x-ray, gamma ray, radio wave, etc., Korean researchers obtained and analyzed data on visible ray and near-infrared ray using Korean facilities, making a significant contribution to the research.
Telescopes that were used include the 1.8m reflector in Mt. Bohyun, Korea, the 1.0m telescope in Mr. Lemon, U.S., the 4.0m UKIRT (United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope) in Hawaii, and the 1.5m telescope of Maidanak Observatory in Uzbekistan.
Among them, the KASINICS (KASI Near Infrared Camera System) developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and installed on the 1.8m telescope at Mt. Bohyun enabled researchers to obtain data on near infrared ray, which was a key to analyzing Swift J1644+57.
Professor Im said, “This observation provides a new evidence for the existence of supermassive black holes as well as the emergence of a powerful jet when a star is torn apart by and falls into the black hole.”
Meanwhile, the Milky Way also harbors a supermassive black hole – similar to Swift J1644+57 in size and 4.6 million times more massive than the Sun.
If a star is swallowed by the black hole in the Milky Way and a powerful jet similar to the one that was recently observed reaches the Earth, the upper atmosphere could evaporate and harmful radioactive ray would directly hit the surface of the Earth.
The recent discovery, along with future research efforts to discover and analyze celestial bodies like Swift J1644+57 will be useful not only to understand supermassive black holes but also to figure out how often such events could occur in our galaxy.
An international joint research team including seven Korean researchers captured a moment when a supermassive black hole* breaks apart and swallows a nearby star.
*A supermassive black hole has a mass of approximately 1 million to 1 billion times more than the mass of the Sun, and is believed to be located in the centers of most galaxies, including the Milky Way.
The research was conducted by an international joint research team composed of 58
scientists from the US (NASA), Korea, Italy, the UK, Japan, and Taiwan, among whom are five researchers of the Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe and J. B. Jeon and H. I. Sung of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute. The Korean team was led by Myung-shin Im, professor of Seoul National University.
The research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of Korea through the Leading Scientists Support Program, and its article titled “Relativistic jet activity from the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole” was published in one of the most prestigious journals in the world, Nature, on August 25.
Various observational facilities including the 1.8m telescope at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory were used for the research.
The team discovered the tidal disruption event of a star by the massive black hole.
It has been believed among astronomers that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their centers, with a strong force to draw and break apart nearby stars. According to the theory, bursts of light are produced while the debris of destroyed stars falls into the black hole. However, the onset of the event was never been observed and the theory had not been proven.
On March 28th, the research team found a class of transient sources at the center of a galaxy 3.9 billion light years away from the Earth through the Swift – satellite of NASA, - and named the celestial body “Swift J1644+57.”
After analyzing how Swift J1644+57 changes its brightness, the team revealed that powerful jets of plasma emerged from the black hole in a certain direction when debris of a star disrupted by the tidal force accreted to the black hole.
In particular, among five types of data on visible ray, x-ray, gamma ray, radio wave, etc., Korean researchers obtained and analyzed data on visible ray and near-infrared ray using Korean facilities, making a significant contribution to the research.
Telescopes that were used include the 1.8m reflector in Mt. Bohyun, Korea, the 1.0m telescope in Mr. Lemon, U.S., the 4.0m UKIRT (United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope) in Hawaii, and the 1.5m telescope of Maidanak Observatory in Uzbekistan.
Among them, the KASINICS (KASI Near Infrared Camera System) developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and installed on the 1.8m telescope at Mt. Bohyun enabled researchers to obtain data on near infrared ray, which was a key to analyzing Swift J1644+57.
Professor Im said, “This observation provides a new evidence for the existence of supermassive black holes as well as the emergence of a powerful jet when a star is torn apart by and falls into the black hole.”
Meanwhile, the Milky Way also harbors a supermassive black hole – similar to Swift J1644+57 in size and 4.6 million times more massive than the Sun.
If a star is swallowed by the black hole in the Milky Way and a powerful jet similar to the one that was recently observed reaches the Earth, the upper atmosphere could evaporate and harmful radioactive ray would directly hit the surface of the Earth.
The recent discovery, along with future research efforts to discover and analyze celestial bodies like Swift J1644+57 will be useful not only to understand supermassive black holes but also to figure out how often such events could occur in our galaxy.
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