Astronomers have precisely measured the feeding schedule of a supermassive black hole nearly one billion light-years from Earth, giving the team an estimate for when its next meal might be.
The black hole is about 50 million times more massive than our Sun and sits at the core of a galaxy about 860 million light-years from Earth.
The event was a tidal disruption, in which a passing object is pulled apart by the gravitational force of a black hole.
Tidal disruption events are brilliant in the night sky, especially at X-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths, allowing telescopes like the Chandra X-ray Observatory to spot them.
Two years later, the same system brightened again, indicating that the star had actually survived the earlier event but instead was being slowly picked apart by the ravenous black hole.
The team’s findings were published last year in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, but new data taken this month by the Chandra X-ray Observatory confirms the black hole’s snacking schedule.
In today’s release, study co-author Eric Coughlin that if the star is not already obliterated, the black hole’s third meal will occur between May 2025 and August 2025.
The team plans to keep an eye on the tidal disruption event to better understand how black holes interact with their environments.
Scientists have determined the exact timing of a supermassive black hole’s next meal by measuring its feeding schedule, which is located about one billion light-years from Earth.
About 860 million light-years from Earth, at the center of a galaxy, is a black hole with a mass roughly 50 million times that of the Sun. The black hole’s system began to rapidly brighten in 2018. Subsequent observations made with multiple NASA telescopes revealed that the black hole had consumed a star that had flown too close to its event horizon—the gravitational vortex beyond which not even light can escape.
A tidal disruption occurs when an object is drawn apart by a black hole’s gravitational pull as it passes by. Telescopes such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory can detect tidal disruption events because they appear bright in the night sky, particularly at X-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths.
It was discovered that the star had not perished in the previous event but was being gradually consumed by the ferocious black hole when the same system began to brighten once more two years later. The black hole’s snacking schedule is confirmed by new data obtained this month by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, although the team’s findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters last year.
The abrupt decrease in X-rays, which is precisely what we observe in our Chandra observations on August 31, is the telltale sign that this stellar snack is ending. Lead author of the study and MIT astronomer Dheeraj Pasham stated as much in a NASA release. “14, 2023.”. “Our data indicate that the black hole was effectively pushing back from the table and wiping its mouth in August of last year. “.
In August 2023, the team forecasted more tidal disruption following the observation of the black hole consuming the star material. That observation was confirmed. The group anticipated a “subsequent rebrightening” in March 2025 in their 2023 publication. According to research co-author Eric Coughlin’s statement released today, the black hole will eat its third meal between May and August of 2025 if the star hasn’t already been destroyed.
To learn more about how black holes interact with their surroundings, the team intends to monitor the tidal disruption event. Of course, mark the summer of 2025 on your calendars; for X-ray enthusiasts, it might be a great one.
