Tattered Black Hole Stars, Gamma-ray Flare Sparks
(Reuters) - A monster destroyed a black hole sun-like star, producing a strange flash of long duration gamma-ray probably will not be seen again in a million years, astronomers said on Thursday.
This is really not the norm gamma ray bursts, explosions and flashes of energy that usually end in a few seconds or milliseconds, often a sign of the star collapses in agony.
"It's really explosive event unlike anything we've seen before," says Joshua Bloom of the University of California, Berkeley, co-author of the research on the explosion in the journal Science.
Initially, 28 indicators in March, NASA's Swift spacecraft, which pulls the universe bursts of gamma rays, in particular, the flash lasted for more than two months and still continues, Bloomberg said in a telephone interview.
What makes this odd, even, is that the black hole, located in the constellation Draco (the Dragon) about 4 billion light years, or 24 trillion miles (38.62 trillion kilometers) from Earth, sat in silence do not eat much, when a star the mass of our Sun moves within range.
"We have a dormant black hole, otherwise, is not gobbling up a significant amount of mass, and get this star, which just happens to be putting some of the orbit near the black hole," Bloom said.
Feeding Frenzy
"This was a black hole, which was otherwise calm and is a sort of frenzy impulsive with this star," he said.
Bloom figures may happen once a black hole for every million years.
This kind of behavior is different from that black holes are usually active, which is to suck all that can tap their enormous gravity, even light. Most galaxies, including our Milky Way, are believed to harbor black holes in their hearts.
Holes blacks are invisible, but astronomers can deduce their existence, because the material that make you turn first to be sucked into
In this case, however, the feast of black hole a star - roughly the same mass of our sun - with delight that ripped the star before it begins by ingestion. While doing so, the black hole emits powerful gamma-ray jets from its center like the pieces of the dying star is converted into energy.
Black hole gravity was so high that caused what is known as a star passing through the tidal disruption.
Astronomers can use this observation to help them learn more about how black holes grow, Bloom said.
"We still do not understand how black holes grow and the universe," he said. "We believe that most black holes begin to have more of the mass of our sun ... how solar masses ranging from 10 billion solar masses is critical."
There is a strong correlation between black hole mass and host galaxy mass black holes feed on gas and stars that come close.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
