Star Devouring Black Hole Spotted by Astronomers

A team of astronomers have detected a surprisingly fast and bright burst of energy from a galaxy 500 million light years away. The burst of radiation peaked in brightness just after 4 day and then faded quickly. The team identified the burst, which was using the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey with supporting observations from the Gran Telescopio Canarias, as the result of a small black hole consuming a star. The discovery provides an exciting insight into stellar evolution and a rare cosmic phenomenon. 

Black holes are stellar corpses where the gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light can escape. They form when massive stars collapse under their own gravity at the end of their life forming an infinitely small point known as a singularity. The region of space around the singularity is bounded by the event horizon, the point beyond which, nothing can escape. Despite the challenges of observing them, they can be detected by observing the effects of their gravity on nearby objects like gas clouds. There are still many mysteries surrounding black holes so they remain an intense area of study. 

3D rendering of a rapidly spinning black hole’s accretion disk and a resulting black hole-powered jet. Credit: Ore Gottlieb et al. (2024)

A team of astronomers led by Claudia Gutiérrez from the Institute of Space Sciences and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalina used data from the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS) to explore transient events. The CRTS was launched in 2004 and is a wide field survey that looks for variable objects like supernova and asteroids. It uses a network of telescopes based in Arizona to scan large areas of sky to detect short-lived events. It has been of great use providing insights into the life cycle of stars and the behaviour of distant galaxies. 

The 60 inch Mt. Lemmon telescope is one of three telescopes used in the Catalina Sky Survey. Image: Catalina Sky Survey, University of Arizona.

The team detected the bright outburst in a galaxy located 500 million light years away and published their results in the Astrophysical Journal. The event took place in a tiny galaxy about 400 times less massive than the Milky Way. The burst was identified as CSS161010, it reached maximum brightness in only 4 days and 2.5 days later had it’s brightness reduced by half. Subsequent work revealed that previous detection had been picked up by the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae. Thankfully the detection was early enough to allow follow up observations by other ground based telescopes. Typically these types of events are difficult to study due to their rapid evolution.

Only a handful of events like CSS161010 have been detected in recent years but until now  their nature was a mystery. The team led by Gutiérrez have analysed the spectral properties and found hydrogen lines revealing material travelling at speeds up to 10% of the speed of light. The changes observed in the hydrogen emission lines is similar to that seen in active galactic nuclei where supermassive black holes exist. The observation suggests it relates to a black hole, although not a massive one.

The brightness of the object reduced 900 times over the following two months. Further spectral analysis at this time still revealed blue shifted hydrogen lines indicating high speed gas outflows. This was not something usually seen from supernova events suggesting a different origin. The team believe that the event is the result of a small black hole swallowing a star. 

Source : Astronomers detected a burst caused by a black hole swallowing a star

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