A team of researchers has observed a supermassive black hole at the moment, apparently, attracted a star that was near and absorbed. This has been possible due to space observatory Swiftat NASA.

“Until now, this is a unique event. Although it has long been expected that such events should occur, the glow it emits is a surprise, “said Jamie A. SINC Kennea, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University and coauthor of the study published in the latest issue of the journal Nature .

Scientists have determined that the black hole is at the center of a galaxy at a distance such that the light of this phenomenon took about 4 billion years to reach.

Black holes are common in the centers of galaxies. The Milky Way is home to one of about 2 million times the mass of our sun Its powerful gravitational fields create strong gradients that can destroy stars that go to several million miles of it and produce a flash of ultraviolet light and X rays .

“This is what we believe happened to the star absorbed in this case. The result of this process may have been observed several times, but until now had never seen beginning, “said Kennea.  

A jet of particles ultrafast

What they have found the research teams is that the accretion-growth by adding materials to the star that has been affected by the absorption of the black hole, relativistic jet has occurred, a result not predicted by the previous theoretical models observation.

“As scientists we refer to relativistic jets, means that the particles of the jet of matter moving near the speed of light. For these speeds is necessary to use the theory of relativity Einstein (hence the term ‘relativistic’) to describe the physics of the reaction.Classical or Newtonian physics does not work at these speeds. That is, the material in the jet moving very fast, about a billion miles per hour, “Kennea.