18 new black holes discovered devouring stars near Earth

Archival observations from NASA’s NEOWISE mission have revealed 18 new events which contains a nearby star pulled by the tides towards a black hole and destroyed.

Astronomers had already discovered this Tidal disruption events (TDE) in search of characteristic bursts in the optical and X-ray range. So far, about a dozen have been discovered in these searches Destruction of stars in the nearby universe. The new TDEs, which a team from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) presents in the magazine “Astrophysical Journal”. more than double the catalog of known TDEs In the universe.

Researchers discovered these previously “hidden” events by looking through an unconventional volume: the Infrared. In addition to emitting optical and X-ray bursts, TDEs can also produce infrared radiation, particularly in “dusty” galaxies where a central black hole is surrounded by galactic debris. Dust from these galaxies typically absorbs and obscures optical and X-ray light as well as any signs of TDE in these bands.

During the process, the powder is additionally heated, which creates detectable infrared radiation. The team discovered that infrared emissions therefore can serve as a signal for tidal disruption events. By looking at the infrared band, the MIT team discovered many more TDEs in galaxies where these types of events were previously hidden.

The 18 new events occurred in different types of galaxies scattered across the sky. “Most of these sources do not appear in optical bands“explains a statement from the study’s lead author, Megan Masterson, a graduate student at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “If you want to understand TDEs as a whole and use them to study the demographics of supermassive black holes, it needs to be viewed in the infrared band.”

The team discovered it recently the closest TDE to date, Search through infrared observations. The discovery opened a new infrared-based route that allows astronomers to search for actively feeding black holes. This initial discovery led the group to search for more TDE.

For their new study, the researchers… They searched archival observations taken by NEOWISE, the revised version of NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Reconnaissance Explorer. This satellite telescope was launched in 2009 and, after a short break, continued to scan the entire sky for infrared “transients,” or short bursts.

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