Black Hole Devours Star – Big Galactic Event In Space

By: Jennifer Hong
06/18/2011 02:17 PM ET

An incredible galactic event occurred when a large black hole devoured and shredded a nearby star. The final moments sent a flash of radiation towards Earth. Astronomers say the that gravitational forces had produced a blast of energy.

It was all visible by telescope more than two-and-a-half months later, according to researchers. It was all detected by the Swift spacecraft, which constantly scans the skies for bursts of radiation. It notified astronomers of the flare and the star’s location.

These bursts usually indicate the implosion of an aging star, which produces a single, quick blast of energy. However, this event was first spotted on March 28, 2011, does not have the marks of an imploding sun. It was designated as Sw 1644+57.

What intrigued the researchers about this gamma ray burst is that it flared up four times over a period of four hours. Astrophysicist Dr Andrew Levan from the University of Warwick, and his colleagues suspected that they were looking at a very different sort of galactic event. It was one where a passing star got sucked into a large hole of gravity.

As material drops into the black matter it becomes compressed and releases radiation that is usually visible from Earth for a month or so. Events like these, termed mini-quasars, are incredibly rare. Researchers expect one every hundred million years in any one galaxy. The researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope as one of the space-based observatories.

These black holes only become visible when a large object made from energy is pulled in. If this happens, the star becomes elongated, orbiting faster than the outer edge, igniting a giant burst of radiation. It then pulls it into a disc-shape worm by wrapping itself around the object.