Scientists have created a stunning animation showing the suspected intermediate-mass black hole HLX-1 tearing apart a star, causing a bright tidal disruption event. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI))
Astronomers believe they have discovered an extremely rare type of black hole – a “missing link” – gobbling up a vulnerable star at the edge of a distant galaxy. They have shared a stunning animation that illustrates how this super-bright stellar catastrophe could have played out.
Black holes come in a variety of sizes, from primordial singularities that are less than the mass of the Sun to supermassive black holes that can have masses up to 40 billion times that of the Sun and hold galaxies like the Milky Way together. There are also intermediate-sized black holes, called intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), that range in mass from 100 to 100,000 solar masses. However, our knowledge of such objects is limited because they are extremely difficult to detect.
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are difficult to identify because they are not large enough to generate energetic jets or merge galaxies, and are often confused with smaller “stellar mass” black hole clusters formed by stellar collapse. Scientists also speculate that IMBHs may hide behind small clusters of stars in close proximity to them without being torn apart.
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Sourse: www.livescience.com
