These cataclysms can provide astronomers with information about this vast population of mysterious supermassive black holes.Īny details from dormant black holes are potentially valuable to astronomers in their efforts to understand all types of black hole activity. However, sometimes a star drifts too close to a dormant black hole, and the star's ensuing destruction, known as a tidal disruption event, triggers spectacular fireworks. In contrast, about 90 percent of known supermassive black holes are dormant, meaning that they are not actively consuming matter and, consequently, do not give off any detectable radiation. However, these active giants make up only about 10 percent or less of supermassive black holes, the authors of the new paper told. Most of what astronomers know about supermassive black holes comes from studying black holes that are actively devouring or accreting matter. Violent motion within the so-called accretion disks, the expanses of gas and dust swirling around black holes, can generate bright flares of light, as well as jets of material that shoot away from the black hole at nearly the speed of light. Īlthough nothing can escape a black hole after falling inside, not even light, it's possible for material around a black hole to radiate light that astronomers can see. Astronomers think vast amounts of energy from these supermassive black holes can influence the evolution of the galaxies in which they live. The method used to analyze this event - named Swift J1644+57 - could help solve the mystery of how the largest black holes in the universe grew to such enormous sizes, the authors of the new research said.Īt the core of almost every galaxy lies a monster black hole - in some cases, the largest black holes in the universe, millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. This stellar slaughter was spotted by scientists who study the X-rays bouncing around the swirling disk of matter surrounding the giant black hole. A sleeping giant at the center of a galaxy has awoken: A normally dormant, monster black hole has been found shredding a star that ventured too close to the cosmic beast.

Black hole accretion disk xray