It sounds like something from a sci-fi thriller. A giant black hole quietly drifted through space before tearing a star apart. Now, thanks to NASA telescopes, this silent predator has been caught in the act.
A Black Hole Hidden in the Shadows of Space
Located around 600 million light-years from Earth, the black hole sat quietly in the dark space between stars. It gave away its presence by unleashing a powerful flare. This flash came from a tidal disruption event, or TDE. In simple terms, a star got too close and was ripped apart. The force of gravity stretched it thin before feeding it to the black hole. The event caused a bright burst of light seen by telescopes.
The TDE, named AT2024tvd, helped astronomers locate a rare kind of black hole. Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, along with Chandra X-ray and the Very Large Array, they discovered that the black hole isn’t where it should be. It doesn’t sit at the heart of its galaxy. Instead, it lies far from the centre — something never seen before in TDEs.
Two Giants Sharing One Galactic Home
Most TDEs are linked to central black holes in galaxies. This one, however, is different. The wandering black hole weighs one million times the mass of the Sun. Meanwhile, the centre of the host galaxy holds a much bigger black hole — 100 million times the Sun’s mass. Surprisingly, the flare happened only 2,600 light-years away from that central black hole.
This bigger black hole is active and spits out energy as it feeds on gas. But the two black holes aren’t a pair. They are not gravitationally bound. The smaller one may one day spiral in to merge, but for now, it wanders alone.
When a star nears a black hole, it gets pulled in. The star is shredded into pieces, and its remains form a glowing ring. This process creates heat and light, which can be seen by telescopes on Earth and in space.
A Flash in the Dark and a Clue in the Light
The first sign of this violent event came from a bright flare. Several sky surveys spotted the light, which looked like a supernova at first. But this was something else. The heat and chemical lines showed it came from a black hole.
The Zwicky Transient Facility, using a 1.2-metre telescope, was first to catch the flare. It watches the northern sky every two days. The light came from a point slightly off-centre from the galaxy. This detail was backed up by data from Pan-STARRS, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey. NASA’s Chandra telescope confirmed that the X-rays also came from the same off-centre spot.
But it was Hubble that gave the clearest view. It showed the TDE was much bluer than the rest of the galaxy. This helped scientists find its exact location.
The black hole responsible may only wake up every few thousand years. It stays silent until a star comes too close. Then, it feasts and goes quiet again.
Astronomers are unsure how the black hole ended up there. One idea is that it was kicked out during a clash between three black holes. The lightest one usually gets pushed away. That could explain why it is still near the centre but not at it.
Another theory is that this black hole came from a small galaxy. That galaxy may have merged with the current one more than a billion years ago. If true, the black hole might one day merge with the central one. But so far, no signs of an old merger have been found. Erica Hammerstein from UC Berkeley checked Hubble images but found no clear traces.
New Eyes to Spot Fleeting Cosmic Events
Telescopes like Hubble and Chandra help catch events like these. They look at different kinds of light, revealing more of the story. More powerful telescopes are on the way. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon join the hunt. They will help spot and track more of these rare flares in space.
As Yuhan Yao, lead author of the study, said, “AT2024tvd is the first offset TDE we’ve seen.” She believes it opens up new ways to find roaming black holes. It may be the first of many hidden monsters waiting to be revealed.
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