This might be what happens when a star wanders too close to a black hole. Absolutely stunning.
The space explosion was detected on March 28 when an instrument on NASA’s Swift satellite detected an X-ray eruption, the first in a series of powerful blasts. The Swift observatory determined a rough position for the explosion, which scientists are now calling the gamma-ray burst (GRB) 110328A.
After Swift’s discovery, an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday (April 4) pinpointed the exact source of the blast — the center of a small galaxy in the Draco constellation. That same day, astronomers used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to make a four-hour exposure of the puzzling source.
Although research is ongoing, astronomers say that the unusual explosion likely arose when a star wandered too close to its galaxy’s central black hole. Intense tidal forces probably tore the star apart, and the infalling gas continues to stream toward the black hole.
According to this model, the spinning black hole formed an outflowing jet, which is blasting powerful X-rays and gamma rays in our direction, researchers said.
“The fact that the explosion occurred in the center of a galaxy tells us it is most likely associated with a massive black hole,” said Neil Gehrels, the lead scientist for Swift at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in a statement. “This solves a key question about the mysterious event.”