Astronomers capture dramatic event of star being ‘repeatedly shredded, consumed’ by black hole

A star, which is similar to the sun, and is being “repeatedly shredded and consumed” by a black hole around 500m light years away has been spotted by astronomers.

Regular outbursts of light were generated by the dramatic event about every 25 days which was observed by scientists at the University of Leicester.

Generally, black hole outbursts, which are commonly known as tidal disruption events, appear when a star gets consumed by a black hole. However, repeated emissions mean that the star is only partially getting destroyed again and again.

But, in instances which involve repeated eruptions, two types of outbursts take place – those that occur every year and those that take place every few hours, as per the researchers. In this case of repeated shredding of star, the regularity of emissions lay between the two, said the team.

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As per the observations, the star, Swift J0230, instead of decaying as expected, used to start shining brightly for seven to 10 days and then switch off abruptly, repeating the process every 25 days.

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The researchers stated that their work, which was published in the journal Nature Astronomy, gave a missing link in everyone's understanding of how orbiting stars are disrupted by black holes.

Dr Robert Eyles-Ferris, who submitted his PhD recently at the University of Leicester, said, “In most of the systems we’ve seen in the past, the star is completely destroyed. Swift J0230 is an exciting addition to the class of partially disrupted stars.”

Dr Phil Evans of the University of Leicester School of Physics and Astronomy and the lead author of the study said, “This is the first time we’ve seen a star like our sun being repeatedly shredded and consumed by a low-mass black hole.”

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Through the models of the Swift J0230 outburst, it was suggested that the star is as big as the sun and is in an elliptical orbit near a low-mass black hole which is at the centre of its galaxy. As per the calculations, material equivalent to the mass of three Earths has been ripped from the atmosphere of Swift J0230 and heated up by falling into the black hole.

The intense heat, which is estimated to be around 2,000,000C (3,600,000F), releases a large amount of X-rays that were first picked up by Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory of NASA. As per the estimate of the researchers, the black hole is around 10,000 to 100,000 times the mass of the sun, which makes it a supermassive black hole in small size.

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