First in History NASA Witnesses a Super-massive Black Hole destroys star!

Events like this are not only incredibly rare but difficult to capture. NASA managed it with a state-of-the-art satellite and a network of robotic telescopes.

If a star wanders too close to a black hole, it will be sucked in without a trace. If the star is too far, it’ll simply ricochet off the black hole and be bounced off into space.
If it’s at the perfect distance, the star can be seen in part sucked in by the black hole’s dominating gravity and ultimately ripped apart. Some of that starry material is then shot back out into space as the rest remains trapped in the black hole.

This is so incredible!

Enjoy!

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."

- Obi Wan Kenobi

a reply to: silo13
Star for a very interesting topic.

First time in the history of the universe though?

Very doubtful.

First time mankind has "witnessed" it? Maybe, but man's ability to see, and comprehend such an event is such a short period of time (relatively), that I'm not sure how meaningful it is.

“Events like this are not only incredibly rare but difficult to capture. NASA managed it with a state-of-the-art satellite and a network of robotic telescopes.”

I just watched a CGI representation of an event, am I missing something?

a reply to: TheLieWeLive

We're in a simulation anyways, remember? It's all good.

originally posted by: TheLieWeLive
“Events like this are not only incredibly rare but difficult to capture. NASA managed it with a state-of-the-art satellite and a network of robotic telescopes.”

I just watched a CGI representation of an event, am I missing something?

All this stuff is CGI. It is just scientific speculation as to what actually happened. The telescopes see changes in light and other very vague stuff and the scientist kind of guess what actually happened.

a reply to: Edumakated

I have a hard time getting excited over something I'm told that happened and then a computer graphic "proves" it. Although I guess if we could see it with our telescopes then we would be involved in the event.

a reply to: TheLieWeLive

I feel the same on this matter - Every time Not A Straight Answer gives a new "finding" and they claim it is something to be excited about.. then show some crap CGI of what they "think happened" with a bunch of mumbojumbo thrown in to make it sound credible. . . I never believe it. It's ridiculous and rather embarrassing for "scientists" lol

a reply to: Mach2

Fixed that - thanks!

Still it's pretty cool!

originally posted by: TheLieWeLive
a reply to: Edumakated

I have a hard time getting excited over something I'm told that happened and then a computer graphic "proves" it. Although I guess if we could see it with our telescopes then we would be involved in the event.

Yeah. This isn't to say the scientist aren't right, but I think a lot of these headlines and stories are misleading because they insinuate a "telescope saw" the event. For the layman, when we hear a telescope saw something, we are thinking they have it on film like any other camera.

The reality is the telescope may have detected a change in a light wave pattern or something but they didn't actually "see" the event. Based on these changes they can surmise what might be happening, but in some ways they are just guessing.

a reply to: silo13

I was hoping for a sped up video showing the actual meal.... What about the planets that were orbiting the star?

a reply to: Edumakated

Yeah the first thought that went through my mind was how we captured the first photos of a black hole and it was so distant that it looked like a fiery blob of blurred mess that was 50,000,000 years old. How in the world did they watch one eat a star?

a reply to: LSU2018

I think with black holes the telescope is able to pick up the absence of light and the behavior of stars / planets in the vicinity of that absence. They probably are able to tell that there was a star and then it disappeared next to the absence of light.

However, this is all speculation based on the sensor readings of the telescope. They didn't see sh*t as we like to say... but the circumstantial evidence from the readings allows them to surmise what might be happening.

a reply to: Edumakated

And it supposedly happened 375 million years ago?


www.nasa.gov...

Astronomers think the supermassive black hole that generated ASASSN-19bt weighs around 6 million times the Sun’s mass. It sits at the center of a galaxy called 2MASX J07001137-6602251 located around 375 million light-years away in the constellation Volans. The destroyed star may have been similar in size to our Sun.

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
a reply to: Edumakated

And it supposedly happened 375 million years ago?


www.nasa.gov...

Astronomers think the supermassive black hole that generated ASASSN-19bt weighs around 6 million times the Sun’s mass. It sits at the center of a galaxy called 2MASX J07001137-6602251 located around 375 million light-years away in the constellation Volans. The destroyed star may have been similar in size to our Sun.

Technically, given the speed of light and distance involved. Any light readings would be many millions of years in the past....

I guess the point is this is all speculation and guesses based on some instrument readings. Definitely misleading in regards to how they present the findings.

Thank you for posting, I enjoyed the video

a reply to: TheLieWeLive
You need to watch it completely, you get to see the part it is around 1:20.
It might not be what you imagined, though.

Jesus, did they hack my Media Monkey visualization graphics that dance to the music?

Yeah, but did you see the video of Britney Spears doing yoga in a bikini?

a reply to: silo13

I tried to watch as much as I could but the #### bell set at a rithmic tone that was hurting my ears and driving me mad. I couldn't finish it.

And it was louder than the narrator's voice.

a reply to: Edumakated

True. And one wonders how much is accurate