Two space observatories have provided the first strong evidence of a supermassive black hole stretching, tearing apart and partially gobbling up a star flung into reach of its enormous gravity, astronomers said.
The event had long been predicted by theory but never confirmed.
A powerful X-ray blast drew the attention of astronomers to the event, located near the center of a galaxy about 700 million light-years from Earth. The international team of astronomers believe gases from the star, heated to multimillion-degree temperatures as they fell toward the black hole near the heart of galaxy RX J1242-11, produced the blast.
Astronomers said a star about the size of our sun neared the black hole after veering off course following a close encounter with another star. The tremendous gravity of the black hole, estimated to have a mass 100 million times that of our sun, then stretched the star to the point of breaking.
"This is the ultimate David versus Goliath battle, but here David loses," said Gunther Hasinger, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.
The effect is the same that the tug of the moon has on the Earth's oceans, but with much more violent results. The black hole consumed an estimated 1 percent of the doomed star, flinging the rest out into space.
"This unlucky star just wandered into the wrong neighborhood," said Stefanie Komossa, also of the Max Planck Institute.
Astronomers used NASA's Chandra and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray observatories to capture the event. Similar events are estimated to occur just once every 10,000 years in a typical galaxy.
Astronomers have seen other similar X-ray blasts before, but never were able to pinpoint them at the center of a galaxy, where black holes lurk. The new observations also revealed the characteristic X-ray signature expected of the surroundings of a black hole.
The blast first was seen in 1992 and remains visible as it fades, said Chandra press scientist Peter Edmonds, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.天文學(xué)家說兩個太空了望臺首次提供有力的證據(jù)，證明了超級巨大黑洞的存在，恒星闖入黑洞強大的引力場里就被它拉伸、撕裂甚至部分吞噬。
很久以前就有理論推測會發(fā)生這種情況，但是從未得到過證實。
強烈的X射線爆炸引起天文學(xué)家們的注意，它發(fā)生在到離地球大約7億光年的星系中心附近。國際天文學(xué)家小組認為恒星釋放的氣體造成了這次爆炸，當(dāng)氣體靠近RX J1242-11星系中心附近的黑洞時，它們的溫度升高到幾百萬度。
天文學(xué)家們說和一個與太陽差不多大的恒星與另一顆恒“親密接觸”后偏離軌道而靠近黑洞。黑洞巨大的引力隨后把恒星不斷拉伸直到破裂，黑洞的引力估計是太陽引力的1億倍。
“這是大衛(wèi)和歌利亞的決戰(zhàn)，但是這次大衛(wèi)輸了。”德國馬普外層空間物理學(xué)院的貢特爾·哈辛格說。
黑洞對恒星的作用和月亮對地球上海洋的吸引作用一樣，但是結(jié)果要猛烈的多。黑洞大約吞噬了這顆“倒霉的”恒星的百分之一，剩余的部分被拋向宇宙空間。
馬普學(xué)院的同仁斯特凡尼·科莫薩說：“這顆不幸的恒星只是‘閑逛’時不小心走錯了路?！?BR> 天文學(xué)家們利用美國國家航空航天局的錢德拉X射線天文臺和歐洲航天局的XXM牛頓X射線天文臺捕捉到了這一現(xiàn)象。類似的現(xiàn)象估計每1萬年才會在一個典型的星系中發(fā)生一次。
天文學(xué)家們以前曾經(jīng)看到過其他類似的X射線爆炸，但是從未能夠確定爆炸發(fā)生在星系的中心，也就是黑洞潛伏的地方。新的觀察結(jié)果同時顯示，在黑洞周圍發(fā)現(xiàn)了人們預(yù)想中可能存在的典型X射線的特征。
哈佛史密森天文物理中心、錢德拉X射線天文臺新聞處的科學(xué)家彼得·埃德蒙茲說，1992年第一次觀察到爆炸現(xiàn)象，盡管爆炸減弱了，但是一直可以看到。
The event had long been predicted by theory but never confirmed.
A powerful X-ray blast drew the attention of astronomers to the event, located near the center of a galaxy about 700 million light-years from Earth. The international team of astronomers believe gases from the star, heated to multimillion-degree temperatures as they fell toward the black hole near the heart of galaxy RX J1242-11, produced the blast.
Astronomers said a star about the size of our sun neared the black hole after veering off course following a close encounter with another star. The tremendous gravity of the black hole, estimated to have a mass 100 million times that of our sun, then stretched the star to the point of breaking.
"This is the ultimate David versus Goliath battle, but here David loses," said Gunther Hasinger, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.
The effect is the same that the tug of the moon has on the Earth's oceans, but with much more violent results. The black hole consumed an estimated 1 percent of the doomed star, flinging the rest out into space.
"This unlucky star just wandered into the wrong neighborhood," said Stefanie Komossa, also of the Max Planck Institute.
Astronomers used NASA's Chandra and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray observatories to capture the event. Similar events are estimated to occur just once every 10,000 years in a typical galaxy.
Astronomers have seen other similar X-ray blasts before, but never were able to pinpoint them at the center of a galaxy, where black holes lurk. The new observations also revealed the characteristic X-ray signature expected of the surroundings of a black hole.
The blast first was seen in 1992 and remains visible as it fades, said Chandra press scientist Peter Edmonds, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.天文學(xué)家說兩個太空了望臺首次提供有力的證據(jù)，證明了超級巨大黑洞的存在，恒星闖入黑洞強大的引力場里就被它拉伸、撕裂甚至部分吞噬。
很久以前就有理論推測會發(fā)生這種情況，但是從未得到過證實。
強烈的X射線爆炸引起天文學(xué)家們的注意，它發(fā)生在到離地球大約7億光年的星系中心附近。國際天文學(xué)家小組認為恒星釋放的氣體造成了這次爆炸，當(dāng)氣體靠近RX J1242-11星系中心附近的黑洞時，它們的溫度升高到幾百萬度。
天文學(xué)家們說和一個與太陽差不多大的恒星與另一顆恒“親密接觸”后偏離軌道而靠近黑洞。黑洞巨大的引力隨后把恒星不斷拉伸直到破裂，黑洞的引力估計是太陽引力的1億倍。
“這是大衛(wèi)和歌利亞的決戰(zhàn)，但是這次大衛(wèi)輸了。”德國馬普外層空間物理學(xué)院的貢特爾·哈辛格說。
黑洞對恒星的作用和月亮對地球上海洋的吸引作用一樣，但是結(jié)果要猛烈的多。黑洞大約吞噬了這顆“倒霉的”恒星的百分之一，剩余的部分被拋向宇宙空間。
馬普學(xué)院的同仁斯特凡尼·科莫薩說：“這顆不幸的恒星只是‘閑逛’時不小心走錯了路?！?BR> 天文學(xué)家們利用美國國家航空航天局的錢德拉X射線天文臺和歐洲航天局的XXM牛頓X射線天文臺捕捉到了這一現(xiàn)象。類似的現(xiàn)象估計每1萬年才會在一個典型的星系中發(fā)生一次。
天文學(xué)家們以前曾經(jīng)看到過其他類似的X射線爆炸，但是從未能夠確定爆炸發(fā)生在星系的中心，也就是黑洞潛伏的地方。新的觀察結(jié)果同時顯示，在黑洞周圍發(fā)現(xiàn)了人們預(yù)想中可能存在的典型X射線的特征。
哈佛史密森天文物理中心、錢德拉X射線天文臺新聞處的科學(xué)家彼得·埃德蒙茲說，1992年第一次觀察到爆炸現(xiàn)象，盡管爆炸減弱了，但是一直可以看到。