NASA | Massive Black Hole Shreds Passing Star

This artist’s rendering illustrates new findings about a star shredded by a black hole. When a star wanders too close to a black hole, intense tidal forces rip the star apart. In these events, called “tidal disruptions,” some of the stellar debris is flung outward at high speed while the rest falls toward the black hole. This causes a distinct X-ray flare that can last for a few years. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer, and ESA/NASA’s XMM-Newton collected different pieces of this astronomical puzzle in a tidal disruption event called ASASSN-14li, which was found in an optical search by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) in November 2014. The event occurred near a supermassive black hole estimated to weigh a few million times the mass of the sun in the center of PGC 043234, a galaxy that lies about 290 million light-years away. Astronomers hope to find more events like ASASSN-14li to test theoretical models about how black holes affect their environments.

During the tidal disruption event, filaments containing much of the star's mass fall toward the black hole. Eventually these gaseous filaments merge into a smooth, hot disk glowing brightly in X-rays. As the disk forms, its central region heats up tremendously, which drives a flow of material, called a wind, away from the disk.

Music credit: Encompass by Mark Petrie from Killer Tracks.

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[GoFeri]

Over what time perioud would the depicted event take place?

[Mrcheekymonkeyisback]

this is why i am staying alive, fighting my depression and anxiety. nature, space and time is so fun to look at and learn about. This universe is truly unique

[Sonbo]

60 fps makes videos so much more enjoyable. Thanks, NASA, for making at least *some* of your videos in 60 fps.

[Bayrondam]

0:13 mr black hole, i dont feel so good...

[NASAGoddard]

Music credit: Encompass by Mark Petrie from Killer Tracks.

[adamlooze]

People calling this video out as being animated. Nice job. I picture you trying to push a triangle block through a circle hole and wondering why it doesn't fit.

[yootoob]

Great CGI work! When I see animations like this showing a black hole moving across space and distorting the light of stars, it looks similar to the refraction you'd get with that of a glass lens. Maybe black holes are actually not black, but more like a transparent sphere distorting the light.

[legion]

now where is my Mass Effect save files.

[gravisan]

alright alright alright, tars you ready?

[kennethlatorre]

people who say this is fake, you should know that this video is an artist rendition Based on data that we already have. yes, the video is fake, but what it shows is what would happen based on the information we have.

there is no possible way to observe a black hole shredding a star up close. the universe is a big place, light it self takes 4 years just to reach the nearest star to our own.

[dvdjonny]

You can tell it is fake because you cannot hear music in space.

[travispolson]

I would rather see the data and visual evidence from the satellites then an artist rendering don't hog all the evidence let us have a look.
This is like showing us a painting of an event and saying see i told you it was true .

[sandeepubhi]

I don't care if this is an animation, it's beautiful

[Bergamings]

Just take a second to think of how much that looks like an iris... Impressive

[RigatoniModular]

Conveniently getting rid of all the gravitational lensing after the accretion disc forms

[VolodymyrAkvilon]

At 0:17 it shows that the core of the star dissipates around into space while the black hole strips and sucks in the lighter outside layers with ease. Stars have heaviest elements created by fusion, and than deposited in their center, (just like iron oxide falls off to the ocean floor). Why would the heavy star's core puff away like that...as if it was made up of lightweight elements... I think this computed simulation is wrong or not complete, any ideas?

[IntelligentCreature]

Looked like a galaxy 🌌 was being formed, space and nature are just amazing

[artistled]

who knew a black whole swallowing a passing star would look so beautiful?

[Hoch]

Song can be found here:
Found it in the comments, needed to share it.

[MagesIncorporated]

Oh come on NASA, you guys have known for a year that that's not an accurate depiction of a black hole with an accretion disk. Smh
...Still looks awesome, though.