Supermassive black hole sends jet pointing towards Earth after tearing apart a star, say astronomers

University of Maryland astronomer Igor Andreoni explained what happens when a dying star gets too close to a supermassive Black Hole. Firstly, the Black Hole’s gravitational waves trap the star and then proceeds to violently rip the star apart, the process is similar to the moon’s gravitational pull affecting tides on Earth but on a monstrous scale. Next, the remnants of the star are pulled into the spinning disk orbiting the black hole. Finally, the remaining pieces are pulled into the black hole from the spinning disk. This phenomenon is known as a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE).

However, in some rare cases, a ‘relativistic jet’ is launched by the black hole after destroying the star. These are beams of matter that travel close to the speed of light.




Andreoni and his team discovered one such case in February 2022 from the Zwicky Transient Facility survey. The team finally publicly announced and published its findings in the journal Nature on November 30, 2022 and named the event “AT 2022cmc”.
Scientists previously discovered these jets over a decade ago and Astronomer Michael Coughlin said that from the collective data they could infer that these relativistic jets are only launched 1% of these destructive events. He added that this recent one was the brightest flash ever recorded among the three total times the events have been observed ever.

FAQs:

1. How are Black Hole formed?
   It is formed when the centre a massive star collapses upon itself after the death of the star.
2. Why is a black hole black?
   As all the light that falls upon it is pulled into it, so it doesn’t reflect any light back.