The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists and the University of Science and Technology of China researchers have recently published their studies on black holes. They have finally uncovered what happens after a black hole eats a star.
Black Hole And Tidal Disruption Flares
Black holes don't just suck in everything close to it. Their massive size actually equates to a gluttonous diet. Stars are no exception. Scientists are aware of these events. They just got to observe it better recently.
Apparently, black holes produce brilliant flares of light. These are called tidal disruption flares. They echo through space. The scientists had to use NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). According to Miami Herald, WISE is a space telescope. It captures the sky with infrared light.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory both manages and operates WISE, according to the Tech Times. The said telescope maps the entirety of the sky every half year. It classifies near-Earth object that can be dangerous to the planet.
WISE also provides the data needed to describe the flares. John Hopkins University Sjoert van Velzen is the lead author of the NASA study. He revealed that they had caught three black holes swallowing a star. The Chinese researchers had caught the fourth one.
It's the first time they had clearly seen such phenomena. Sjoert added that the infrared light echoes from multiple tidal disruption events.
Black Hole And Spaghettification
A black hole's event horizon is the point of no return for a star. It is where the star gets stretched and torn apart. Hence the process being called spaghettification. It is caused by variations of the black hole's gravitational pull.
People release gas when they burp. But for a black hole, they emit immense energy. Among these are ultraviolet and X-ray light. They could annihilate everything near it.
The energy is not as visible as the dust particles. They are found a few trillion miles from the black hole. These particles are not destroyed by the light. Instead, they can absorb it. Then, they will re-emit that light. Thus, a longer infrared wavelength.
Scientists are able to measure the delay between the original light flare and these echoes. It will determine how much energy was released during the digestion. Through these studies, they were able to find the locations of dust webs. Their characteristics can be understood more.
