A supermassive black hole swallowed a star three times as massive as the Sun and ejected its remains
Scientists continue to study supermassive black holes. As it turned out, one of these objects was able to absorb a star, the mass of which is three times the mass of the Sun.
Here's What We Know
The incident occurred at a distance of 290 million light years from our planet in the galaxy PGC 043234. Scientists first saw it in 2014. The event was named ASASSN-14li. The X-ray space telescopes XMM-Newton and Chandra were brought in to observe it again.
Tidal disruption happens when a star passes too close in a supermassive black hole. Under the influence of the gravitational field, the star's debris heats up, triggering a flash seen in the ultraviolet, X-ray and optical bands.
Studying the ejected remnants of the star, scientists determined that it was three times more massive than the Sun (~1,989 × 1030 kg). Interestingly, six years ago, a study on ASASSN-4li said the mass of the collapsed star was only 60 per cent of the solar mass.
