Tidal Disruption Event

Rare spiral galaxy suggests a cosmic death from within.

A new study characterizes a puzzling, highly energetic cosmic explosion, revealing a peculiar transient. Is Einstein Probe transient EP240408a a tidal disruption event, a gamma-ray burst, or something new?

MIT faculty, researchers, students, alumni and staff brought their trademark inventiveness and curiosity-driven spirit to the news, making headlines for their work on everything from examining the impact of AI on the labor market to new methods for screening for cancer and addressing climate change.

A previously quiet black hole at the center of a distant galaxy has suddenly erupted, giving off plumes of gas every 8.5 days. These "hiccups" suggest black hole accretion disks may be more varied than previously thought, possibly containing other black holes, and even entire stars.

A new investigation into an obscure class of galaxies known as Compact Symmetric Objects, or CSOs, has revealed that these objects are not entirely what they seem. CSOs are active galaxies that host supermassive black holes at their cores. Out of these monstrous black holes spring two jets traveling in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light. But in comparison to other galaxies that boast fierce jets,…

Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have uncovered the closest recorded occurrence of a star being torn apart by a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Using the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) system, on February 22, 2023, the team detected a sudden surge in brightness followed by a rapid dimming in the galaxy NGC 3799, located about 160 million light-years from…

The gruesome discoveries more than double the number of tidal disruption events found in the local universe.

New model tracks the remains of a star looping around a black hole.

Black holes are some of the most powerful objects in the universe — and humans could devise ways to harness that power as an energy source, a new theoretical...

Amaterasu—the most powerful cosmic ray seen in three decades—seems to come from an empty point of the sky. New telescopes may solve the mystery of its origins

From the interior of a star to the accretion disk of a black hole.

The black hole devoured an equivalent of three Earth masses during its nine observed bites of the star over several months in 2022.

The massive black hole was found nibbling on a sun-like star.

Years after ripping stars to shreds, 24 black holes suddenly flared up with radio waves in inexplicable 'burping' bouts. Half of all star-killing black holes...

Astronomers have recently encountered numerous instances of "tidal disruption events."

An international team of astronomers has performed high-cadence optical monitoring of an active galaxy known as Markarian 1018. Results of the observational campaign, published July 26 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed more light on the nature of the recent outburst in this galaxy.

The Universe is a violent place where here even a star's life can be cut short. This happens when a star finds itself in a "bad" neighborhood, specifically in the proximity of a supermassive black hole. These black holes, boasting mass that is millions or even billions of times greater than our S

Astronomers have witnessed one of the most dramatic "switching on" events ever seen as a distant supermassive black hole began greedily feasting on its...

A black hole 10 billion light-years away suddenly 'switched on', becoming one of the brightest transient objects ever detected.

A team of astronomers led by researchers from the University of Birmingham, University College London and Queen's University Belfast have discovered one of the most dramatic 'switches on' of a black hole ever seen. They will present their findings on Tuesday 4 July at the 2023 National Astronomy Meeting in Cardiff. The work will also be published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.