Hubble Captures Supermassive Black Hole Eating A Star Millions Of Light Years Away
While the legendary James Webb Space Telescope might have taken some pressure off the ageing Hubble Telescope, the latter still has immense capability to deliver stunning views of the universe like the recently captured supermassive black hole that was caught eating a star.
It's quite normal for supermassive black holes to devour stars in space, although it happens rarely. What's rare is being able to spot one in action, and Hubble delivered that to us.
Black hole turns star into doughnut
NASA scientists saw a black hole turning a star into a cosmic doughnut before completely swallowing it. When black holes munch on entire stars, they throw out radiation that helps scientists understand what might be going on.
This process of eating an entire star is called a "tidal disruption event" and NASA says that it is one of the most violent and complex events that take place in our universe.
By studying such events of cosmic proportions, scientists think they'll be able to learn more about what unfolds when a black hole eats entire stars. There's always a catch in space! The event captured by Hubble is 300 million-light-years-away, meaning that it actually happened millions of years ago and its light is just reaching us now.
Also read:?Strange Blast Of Light Turns Out To Be A Black Hole Pointing Straight At Earth
According to BBC, over 100 tidal disruption events have been observed by scientists so far. One of these that was seen in 2021 actually took place in an entirely different galaxy.
This time, Hubble managed to observe the event in ultraviolet (UV light) instead of X-ray light. Such light is not visible to the naked human eye and needs to be tweaked in order to processed by us.
Also read:?A 'Glowing' Lab-Grown Black Hole Can Expand Our Understanding Of The Universe
Why the doughnut shape, you wonder? When the black hole began to feast on the star, it warped the gases into the shape of a doughnut. This area is actually as big as our solar system and is circling the actual black hole.
What do you think about this terrifying yet cool space phenomenon? Let us know in the comments below.?For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.
