Black Hole Accreting with Jet

Black Hole Accreting with Jet

Illustration Credit:
NASA,
Swift,
Aurore Simonnet
(Sonoma State U.)

Explanation:
What happens when a black hole devours a star?

Many details remain unknown, but observations are providing new clues.

In 2014, a
powerful explosion was recorded by the ground-based robotic telescopes of the
All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (Project ASAS-SN),
with followed-up observations by instruments including
NASA‘s Earth-orbiting
Swift satellite.

Computer modeling of these emissions fit a star being
ripped apart by a distant
supermassive black hole.

The results of such a collision are portrayed in the
featured artistic illustration.

The black hole itself is a depicted as a tiny black dot in the center.

As matter falls toward
the hole, it collides with other matter and
heats up.

Surrounding the black hole is an
accretion disk
of hot matter that used to be the star, with a
jet emanating from the
black hole’s spin axis.