Hubble image archive
Illustration of Black Hole System
Illustration of Mid-Sized Black Hole Eating a StarThis artist's concept depicts a cosmic homicide in action. A wayward star is being shredded by the intense gravitational pull of a black hole that contains tens of thousands of solar masses. The stellar remains are forming an accr...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2020
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2020-19-4641-image
Illustration of Mid-Sized Black Hole Eating a Star
This artist's concept depicts a cosmic homicide in action. A wayward star is being shredded by the intense gravitational pull of a black hole that contains tens of thousands of solar masses. The stellar remains are forming an accretion disk around the black hole. Flares of X-ray light from the super-heated gas disk alerted astronomers to the black hole's location; otherwise it lurked unknown in the dark. The elusive object is classified as an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), as it is much less massive than the monster black holes that dwell in the centers of galaxies. Therefore, IMBHs are mostly quiescent because they do not pull in as much material, and are hard to find. Hubble observations provide evidence that the IMBH dwells inside a dense star cluster. The cluster itself may be the stripped-down core of a dwarf galaxy.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and D. Player (STScI)More Images From This Period
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Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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