Astronomers from Swineburne University have detected a supermassive black hole shooting a luminous jet at the speed of light towards Earth. This phenomenon occurred because a star got too close to the supermassive black hole and was them ripped apart by tidal forces, with pieces drawn into its orbit before being consumed by the object.
Once in a blue moon, or 1% of the time, these tidal disruption events (TDEs) result in the launch of luminous jets of material moving at nearly the speed of light. Researchers measured this one to be more than 8.5 billion light years away and named it “AT2022cmc”. It’s estimated to be at the center of a galaxy that is not yet visible because the intense light from the flash still outshines it.
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Stars that are literally torn apart by the gravitational tidal forces of black holes help us better understand what exists in the Universe. These observations help us explore extreme physics and energies that cannot be created on Earth,” said Professor Jeff Cooke, Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav).
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