![]() The flash, named AT 2022cmc, appeared particularly bright. “When a star dangerously approaches a black hole-no worries, this will not happen to the sun-it is violently ripped apart by the black hole’s gravitational tidal forces-similar to how the moon pulls tides on Earth but with greater strength,” Michael Coughlin, co-author of the Nature study and astronomer at the University of Minnesota, tells Reuters’ Will Dunham.ĭuring a tidal disruption event, the black hole tears the star into thin streams of matter in a process called “spaghettification.” As this happens, some of the star’s material enters the black hole, which releases of a jet of energy that’s so bright that it can be detected by astronomers, according to a 2020 release about a similar cosmic event. Two studies published Wednesday in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy detailed the rare cosmic event from earlier this year. Now, researchers have determined that the bright flash was the result of a tidal disruption event, a release of electromagnetic energy that occurs when a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole and meets its fatal end, according to NASA.Īt 8.5 billion light-years away from Earth, this was the farthest and brightest tidal disruption event ever discovered, according to a statement. From Earth, scientists observed the event as a distant flash of light. On February 11, a star approached a supermassive black hole and subsequently was shredded by the intense gravitational forces. It is free.Įach time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Or you may create one on the Disqus system. Enter the login for your social media account. They are for Disqus, Facebook, Twitter and Google.
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