Star Falls Into Black Hole

thodelu writes with news that astronomers recently got a look at what they believe is a star falling into a black hole. Phil Plait explains: "As the star approached this bottomless pit, the side of the star facing the black hole was pulled far harder than the other side of the star, which may have been a million or more kilometers farther away from the black hole. This change in pull stretched the star — this stretching is called a 'tide,' and is essentially the same thing that causes tides on the Earth from the Moon’s gravity and when the star wandered too close to the black hole, the strength of that pull became irresistible, overcoming the star’s own internal gravity. In a flash, the star was torn apart, and octillions of tons of ionized gas burst outward! This material whipped around the black hole, forming a disk of plasma called an accretion disk. Magnetic fields, friction, and turbulence superheated the plasma, and also focused twin beams of matter and energy which blasted out from the poles of the disk, away from the black hole itself. The energy stored in these beams is incredible, crushing our imagination into dust: for a time, they shone with the light of a trillion Suns!"

Gravity...

[ackthpt]

Is a distortion of both Time and Space.

While a star being stretched and pulled into a Black Hole, and perhaps giving out a death cry (rather poetically written as: "The energy stored in these beams is incredible, crushing our imagination into dust: for a time, they shone with the light of a trillion Suns!") is certainly fascinating stuff. It seems to me that within its own reality the Sun remains unstreched, unbent and happy as can be until it merges with that which is the black hole (which itself is converting matter to energy, emitted from its poles.)

Re:How long does this process take?

[barrtender]

Unfortunately I think the only signs we got were x-rays, not anything visible.

As for the duration - there's a couple answers. From our perspective the best I can tell is 41 hours from the note on this picture [swift.ac.uk] saying it was a 41 hour exposure.

From the sun's perspective it should take forever if I remember relativity right. Someone with more knowledge can correct me here, as I'm not positive and would like to know more.

Obligatory Niven

[Nom du Keyboard]

If you want to understand the tidal gradient around a very dense object, go read Larry Niven's Neutron Star.

And you shouldn't have had to scan down 123 postings to find this. /. is slipping.