A Supermassive Black Hole Has Been Devouring a Star For a Decade

An anonymous reader quotes a report from USA Today: A massive black hole devoured a star over a 10 year period, setting a new record for the longest space meal ever observed, according to new research. Researchers spotted the ravenous black hole with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Swift satellite as well as ESA's XMM-Newton, according to a statement from NASA. When objects like stars get too close to black holes, the intense gravity of the black hole can rip the star apart in what's called a tidal disruption event (TDE), according to NASA. While some of the debris from the star is flung forward, parts of it are pulled back and ingested by the black hole, where it heats up and emits an X-ray flare, NASA said in a statement. The tidal disruption event spotted by the trio of X-ray telescopes, is unlike anything researchers have ever seen, lasting ten times longer than any observed incident of star's death caused by a black hole, according to research published in Nature Astronomy Feb. 6. The black hole, dubbed XJ1500+0154, is located in a galaxy 1.8 billion light-years from Earth. Researchers first spotted it in 2005 and it reached peak brightness in 2008, according to the statement. According to NASA, researchers believe that the black hole may have consumed the most massive star ever completely torn apart during a TDE.

Re:USAToday? Science?

[hcs_$reboot]

The reasons why am I still here on this site are waning....

Well, there is also a link to Nasa and another to arxiv, so that should be enough..

Re:

[thegarbz]

No you don't understand. Kids these days only read the first sentence, so effectively there is no link to NASA.

Back in my day I didn't bother with reading. I just looked at the pictures. ... Like the NASA picture.

Re:USAToday? Science?

[ShanghaiBill]

This is a valid source for science news?

It is an accurate, well-written article, with links to more information. If you have a legitimate complaint about TFA, then you explain what it is. Otherwise, stop whining. Personally, I am happy to see USAToday publishing stories like this, and I am glad that Slashdot is covering it as well. We need more stories like this.

Anyway, I for one am happy that it is happening 1.8 billion light years away. A total stellar collapse can emit enough gamma rays to sterilize a galaxy.

Re:

[dreamchaser]

You obviously didn't even bother reading it. Yes, it's valid. It's your cognitive functions that are iffy.

Re:

[stealth_finger]

Just try with no Javascript. Just a black hole :-)

I guess this puts NASA in my "no visit" list (unless I devise some program to extract the pics and -perhaps- some text from that)

If you ask nicely, I'll show you my SUPERMASSIVE BLACK PENIS!!

Sou' brudda too beaucoup

This is to be a perfect story for Slashdot.

[mmell]

I would've expected to see intelligent commentary on how the observations were gathered and interpreted to increase our understanding of the cosmos. Now, it's all A/C's trolling, more than half with political agendas.

"Zathras can never have anything nice."

Re:

[freeze128]

The star must be Chinese, because the black hole is still hungry!

Thank you, I'm here all week.

Re:

[Bryan Ischo]

Well to be honest this story is kind of a snoozer for me. Like, it's already known for this sort of thing to be possible. The fact that it was actually observed hardly seems that interesting to me personally. But for those of you for whom this sort of thing is exciting, please do post, maybe your posts will be interesting to read.

Re: This is to be a perfect story for Slashdot.

[mmell]

Just to point out - there's a difference between theorizing something has or will occur and observing such an occurrence. Remember, even Albert Einstein didn't believe singularities existed despite the fact that his own Theory of Relativity predicted their existence.

Re:

[dreamchaser]

Then you're on the wrong site. Shouldn't you be busy playing COD in your mother's basement?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

What a strange post. It's like one of the early day Slashdotters wrote the first paragraph, then without hitting send left his browser window open and some deranged passer-by came along and finished the post.

Re:

[dreamchaser]

There is still some of the old /. left. The problem is the signal to noise ratio, which is directly attributable to insecure trolls who feel better about their pathetic lives by being assholes.

For a decade, almost 2 billon years ago ...

[csmithers]

For a decade, almost 2 billon years ago ... pretty heady stuff. I wonder what's happening now ?

Re:

[PPH]

I wonder what's happening now ?

Brace yourselves for a cosmic belch.

We forgot the real story

[DNS-and-BIND]

The article and summary mention nothing about the real story here: What kind of shirt was the spokesman wearing when he made the announcement? We know from direct empirical evidence that this is more important than humanity landing on a comet, much less some black hole somewhere.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Great reference!! I remember that ;)
http://nypost.com/2014/11/17/the-outrage-machine-insande-ado-about-sexist-shirt

Closeup of the shirt's pattern, sewn by his female artist friend for his birthday from sexy Bond girl pin-up fabric:
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--s2qzjYtt--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/1270427175111551266.jpg

Meme
http://science.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/1411/seriously-just-landed-probe-comet-study-the-origins-solar-sy-demotivational-posters-1416436291.j

I always wondered what happened...

[Black.Shuck]

...to Muse.

A disturbance in Force...

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

... as though millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror ... and were silenced over a ten year period ...

Dangit XJ1500+0154, ten years?

[sabbede]

Stop playing with your food and eat it!

What happened to this site?

[ausekilis]

30+ replies and no "Yo Mamma" jokes?

It's almost like we're maturing. Almost.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion