Multimedia Gallery
Debris from a star destroyed by supermassive black hole are flung into space
After a supermassive black hole tore a star apart, roughly half of the star's debris was flung out into space, while the remainder formed a glowing accretion disc around the black hole. The system shone brightly across many wavelengths and is thought to have produced energetic, jet-like outflows perpendicular to the accretion disc.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants AST 1454816, AST 1616566, OISE 1545949 and AST 1518052.]
Learn more in the New York University news story Scientists link star-shredding event to origins of universe’s highest-energy particles. (Date of image: unknown; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: June 18, 2021)
Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab
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