NASA's Hubble detects a massive black hole wandering outside its galaxy
Source: NASA
Hidden 600 million light-years away in the vastness of space from our naked eye sight lies a sneaky giant that's eating up any unsuspecting star that ventures too close. This
black hole
made everyone remember its presence in a flashy tidal disruption event (TDE), tearing apart and consuming an unsuspecting star, emitting a huge blast of radiation. These TDEs are excellent tests of black hole behavior, giving us a glimpse into the brutal environment when a black hole is accreting.
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The radiation produced is bright enough that it can be detected by telescopes, lighting up the otherwise black space.
Hubble detects first tidal event from a rogue supermassive black hole
The latest TDE, AT2024tvd, was noticed by an assortment of telescopes, headed by NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope
. This sighting was a revelation for astronomers, as it verified the presence of a rogue
supermassive black hole
. Verification by corroborating evidence acquired by the
NASA
Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the NRAO Very Large Array telescope showed that the black hole was not resting at the center of the galaxy, where such things normally reside. Instead, it was at some distance from the galactic center.
As the star is drawn in during TDE, it is sucked into the black hole's powerful gravitational pull, stretched out like spaghetti—a process known as "spaghettification." The remains of the star are then drawn into an accretion disk, where it disintegrates very rapidly, emitting high-energy radiation. This effect can be observed in a range of wavelengths of light, from ultraviolet to X-rays. Here, the AT2024tvd TDE is historic because it records the first time that a tidal disruption event occurred away from the center of the galaxy.
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Hubble reveals tidal event far from galaxy's center
It is so fascinating because of the location of the black hole. Supermassive black holes were found to reside at the core of galaxies, where they have been actively consuming. But this prankster black hole is around 1 million solar masses in weight, not even close to the central supermassive black hole whose weight is around 100 million solar mass. Surprisingly, the TDE event happened around 2,600 light-years away from the center black hole, not much more than the distance of the Sun from the Milky Way center.
Despite this nomadic black hole, there exists a second supermassive black hole residing in the galaxy's center. The central black hole is currently accreting gas within the area and is an active galactic nucleus. Interestingly enough, the two black holes are not gravitationally locked together, nor are they a binary system. While it is conceivable that the smaller black hole will stray towards the interior in the distant future and smash into the larger black hole, currently it is traveling on its own orbit, lost somewhere in the galaxy.
How did this black hole end up here
The origin of this straying black hole is not known. It is one of the factors the black hole was ejected from the galactic center because of three-body interaction, a process during which the lightest black hole in a group is ejected out of the galactic center upon an encounter. It could also be the remains of a compact galaxy that had merged and crashed into the parent galaxy a billion years ago and placed the black hole in a far-flung corner. Despite the lack of direct evidence for such a merger, it is an intriguing side to this finding.
The AT2024tvd TDE is just one illustration of the ability to detect the hidden black holes in the shape of tidal disruption events. Witnessing these temporary events, the scientists can make more new observations concerning the black holes that are otherwise not visible through regular observations. As next-generation telescopes like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope come on line in the not-too-distant future, astronomers will possess ever more powerful instruments to bring to bear on the study and comprehension of these mysterious cosmic phenomena. AT2024tvd's discovery is a milestone along the way to discovering rogue black holes—and one with the power to revolutionize our understanding of
galaxy formation
and black hole behavior.
A new age of exploration
As scientists learn more about what rogue black holes are and how they fit into galactic evolution, it's guaranteed that tidal disruption events will provide a treasure trove of new data. As technology becomes faster and there are more powerful telescopes available, the universe will continue to reveal its secrets and give us a better idea of what forces mold our universe.
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