NASA Unveils Image of Black Hole Eating Star

NASA has shared a striking picture of a black hole consuming a star and triggering a massive explosion. This cosmic event occurred 600 million light-years ago, with the resulting burst of radiation only reaching us now in the form of a bright dot. The Hubble Space Telescope from NASA captured this astronomical phenomenon, known as a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE), and confirmed it with observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Array radio telescope. Lead study author Yuhan Yao from the University of California at Berkeley mentioned that this discovery of the offset TDE, named AT2024tvd, could lead to further exploration of wandering black holes. A TDE occurs when a star falls too close to a black hole, causing it to be stretched and torn apart by the black hole’s intense gravity. This shredded material becomes heated as it orbits the black hole, emitting powerful bursts of energy and light detectable by telescopes in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. Ryan Chornock, a UC Berkeley professor, highlighted the importance of TDEs in detecting massive black holes that would otherwise remain hidden.