The supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy slowly digests matter from the giant star over a 114-day cycle.
The galaxy ESO 253-G003 is located 570 million light years from Earth and shines regularly in cycles. Astronomers have discovered that the cause is from the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy which is slowly tearing apart a star. This star revolves around the supermassive black hole and every 114 days it gets so close to the black hole that it loses some of its matter and releases flashes of light.
The flash event named ASASSN-14kb was first discovered in 2014. At first, researchers thought it was a strange supernova explosion. Last year, lead researcher Anna Payne examined data from the All-Sky Supernova Automatic Survey (ASAS-SN) program and detected regular flashes. Payne counted 17 flashes of light that appeared 114 days apart. The discovery was published at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Association and in the journal Astrophysics.
Payne et al. Correctly predicted a new flash in May, September and December 2020. After observing 20 repeated flashes of light, the team thought that this frequent frequency could reveal the extreme environment created by the supermassive black holes in the center. galaxies.
“These are the most frequent and predictable repetitive multi-wavelength flashes we’ve ever seen from the center of a galaxy,” said Payne, a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. “We believe that the supermassive black hole in the middle of a galaxy produces a flash when it digests part of the giant star in orbit.”
The team also explored two other theories. One is that the flash may be the result of the interaction between one supermassive black hole and another. Although the ESO 253-G003 has a second supermassive black hole, it is too far away for such an interaction.
The second hypothesis concerns the star and the disc of matter surrounding the supermassive black hole. A star with a steep orbit can pass through the disc, causing matter to spiral into the black hole. However, this assumption is inconsistent as the star must cross the disc of matter twice in orbit, producing a slightly different flash. But the researchers found no difference in the flashes of light.
The team concluded that the most plausible explanation is that a supermassive black hole 78 million times heavier than the Sun is slowly absorbing matter from the star. Each time it approaches a black hole, the star loses a mass equal to 3 Jupiter. Researchers don’t know how long it will take, but at some point the star will lose all of its mass. Payne et al analyze data from the December 2020 flashback and will continue to observe flashes that are expected to appear in April and August of this year.
