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Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Music: \"The Orion Arm\" and \"Particle Acceleration\" both from Killer Tracks.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Complete transcript available.

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Now astronomers using archival observations from Swift, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory and the Japan-led Suzaku satellite have identified the reflections of X-ray flares erupting during the event. Led by Erin Kara, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the University of Maryland, College Park, the team has used these light echoes, or reverberations, to map the flow of gas near a newly awakened black hole for the first time.

Swift J1644+57 is one of only three tidal disruptions that have produced high-energy X-rays, and to date it remains the only event caught at the peak of this emission. While astronomers don't yet understand what causes flares near the black hole, when one occurs they can detect its echo a couple of minutes later as its light washes over structures in the developing accretion disk. The technique, called X-ray reverberation mapping, has been used before to explore stable disks around black holes, but this is time it has been applied to a newly formed disk produced by a tidal disruption.

Swift J1644+57's accretion disk was thicker, more turbulent and more chaotic than stable disks, which have had time to settle down into an orderly routine. One surprise is that high-energy X-rays arise from the innermost regions of the disk instead of a narrow jet of accelerated particles, as originally thought.

The researchers estimate the black hole has a mass about a million times that of the sun. They expect future improvements in understanding and modeling accretion flows will allow them to measure the black hole's spin using this data.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 333660, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12265/#media_group_333660", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "In this artist's rendering, a thick accretion disk has formed around a supermassive black hole following the tidal disruption of a star that wandered too close. Stellar debris has fallen toward the black hole and collected into a thick chaotic disk of hot gas. Flashes of X-ray light near the center of the disk result in light echoes that allow astronomers to map the structure of the funnel-like flow, revealing for the first time strong gravity effects around a normally quiescent black hole. Includes animated gif.

Credit: NASA/Swift/Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State Univ.", "items": [ { "id": 268794, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423292, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/Tidal_disruption_art_AS.jpg", "filename": "Tidal_disruption_art_AS.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "In this artist's rendering, a thick accretion disk has formed around a supermassive black hole following the tidal disruption of a star that wandered too close. Stellar debris has fallen toward the black hole and collected into a thick chaotic disk of hot gas. Flashes of X-ray light near the center of the disk result in light echoes that allow astronomers to map the structure of the funnel-like flow, revealing for the first time strong gravity effects around a normally quiescent black hole. Includes animated gif. Credit: NASA/Swift/Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State Univ.", "width": 2491, "height": 3375, "pixels": 8407125 } }, { "id": 268795, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423293, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/TD_GIFslower.gif", "filename": "TD_GIFslower.gif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "In this artist's rendering, a thick accretion disk has formed around a supermassive black hole following the tidal disruption of a star that wandered too close. Stellar debris has fallen toward the black hole and collected into a thick chaotic disk of hot gas. Flashes of X-ray light near the center of the disk result in light echoes that allow astronomers to map the structure of the funnel-like flow, revealing for the first time strong gravity effects around a normally quiescent black hole. Includes animated gif. Credit: NASA/Swift/Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State Univ.", "width": 480, "height": 270, "pixels": 129600 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 333661, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12265/#media_group_333661", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "This simulation by Hotaka Shiokawa and his colleagues follows the formation of an accretion disk around a modest black hole with about 500 times the sun's mass after tidal forces have disrupted a white dwarf star with about 64 percent of the sun's mass. Many features seen in the simulation scale up to more massive black holes and stars. The movie opens as the first gas streams from the shattered star swing around the black hole. Before they can form a stable accretion disk, the stellar debris must lose kinetic energy. This is accomplished through the formation of standing shock waves (lighter colors) enhanced by the effects of general relativity.

Credit: H. Shiokawa et al. 2015

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The movie opens as the first gas streams from the shattered star swing around the black hole. Before they can form a stable accretion disk, the stellar debris must lose kinetic energy. This is accomplished through the formation of standing shock waves (lighter colors) enhanced by the effects of general relativity. Credit: H. Shiokawa et al. 2015", "width": 1080, "height": 1016, "pixels": 1097280 } }, { "id": 268804, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423302, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/Shiokawa_TD_Simulation_rho_ur_1080_ProRes.webm", "filename": "Shiokawa_TD_Simulation_rho_ur_1080_ProRes.webm", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "This simulation by Hotaka Shiokawa and his colleagues follows the formation of an accretion disk around a modest black hole with about 500 times the sun's mass after tidal forces have disrupted a white dwarf star with about 64 percent of the sun's mass. 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Shiokawa et al. 2015", "width": 1080, "height": 1016, "pixels": 1097280 } }, { "id": 268799, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423297, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/frames/3000x2815_1x1_30p/", "filename": "3000x2815_1x1_30p", "media_type": "Frames", "alt_text": "This simulation by Hotaka Shiokawa and his colleagues follows the formation of an accretion disk around a modest black hole with about 500 times the sun's mass after tidal forces have disrupted a white dwarf star with about 64 percent of the sun's mass. Many features seen in the simulation scale up to more massive black holes and stars. The movie opens as the first gas streams from the shattered star swing around the black hole. Before they can form a stable accretion disk, the stellar debris must lose kinetic energy. 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Before they can form a stable accretion disk, the stellar debris must lose kinetic energy. This is accomplished through the formation of standing shock waves (lighter colors) enhanced by the effects of general relativity. Credit: H. Shiokawa et al. 2015", "width": 3000, "height": 2816, "pixels": 8448000 } }, { "id": 268801, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423299, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/Shiokawa_TD_Simulation_rho_ur_3000_ProRes.mov", "filename": "Shiokawa_TD_Simulation_rho_ur_3000_ProRes.mov", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "This simulation by Hotaka Shiokawa and his colleagues follows the formation of an accretion disk around a modest black hole with about 500 times the sun's mass after tidal forces have disrupted a white dwarf star with about 64 percent of the sun's mass. Many features seen in the simulation scale up to more massive black holes and stars. The movie opens as the first gas streams from the shattered star swing around the black hole. Before they can form a stable accretion disk, the stellar debris must lose kinetic energy. This is accomplished through the formation of standing shock waves (lighter colors) enhanced by the effects of general relativity. Credit: H. Shiokawa et al. 2015", "width": 3000, "height": 2815, "pixels": 8445000 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 333662, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12265/#media_group_333662", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Images from Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical (white, purple) and X-Ray telescopes (yellow and red) were combined in this composite of Swift J1644+57, an X-ray outburst astronomers classify as a tidal disruption event. The event is seen only in the X-ray image, which is a 3.4-hour exposure taken on March 28, 2011. The outburst was triggered when a passing star came too close to a supermassive black hole. The star was torn apart, and much of the gas fell toward the black hole. To date, this is the only tidal disruption event emitting high-energy X-rays that astronomers have caught at peak luminosity.

Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler", "items": [ { "id": 268805, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423303, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/581989main_xrt_sw_164457_labels.jpg", "filename": "581989main_xrt_sw_164457_labels.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Images from Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical (white, purple) and X-Ray telescopes (yellow and red) were combined in this composite of Swift J1644+57, an X-ray outburst astronomers classify as a tidal disruption event. The event is seen only in the X-ray image, which is a 3.4-hour exposure taken on March 28, 2011. The outburst was triggered when a passing star came too close to a supermassive black hole. The star was torn apart, and much of the gas fell toward the black hole. To date, this is the only tidal disruption event emitting high-energy X-rays that astronomers have caught at peak luminosity. Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler", "width": 2500, "height": 2500, "pixels": 6250000 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 333663, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12265/#media_group_333663", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Same as above without label.Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler", "items": [ { "id": 268806, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 765357, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/581993main_XRT_Sw_1644plus57_nolabels.jpg", "filename": "581993main_XRT_Sw_1644plus57_nolabels.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Same as above without label.Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler", "width": 1200, "height": 1200, "pixels": 1440000 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 333664, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12265/#media_group_333664", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "X-rays from flares near the black hole reflect off gas in the surrounding accretion disk. When this light reaches the gas, it excites iron ions and causes them to fluoresce. This creates an X-ray echo that follows with a time delay depending on its distance from the source. Using this information, astronomers can explore the structure of the inner accretion disk and determine properties of the black hole. Includes animated gif.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

", "items": [ { "id": 268811, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423308, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/X-ray_Reverberation_Mapping.gif", "filename": "X-ray_Reverberation_Mapping.gif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "X-rays from flares near the black hole reflect off gas in the surrounding accretion disk. When this light reaches the gas, it excites iron ions and causes them to fluoresce. This creates an X-ray echo that follows with a time delay depending on its distance from the source. Using this information, astronomers can explore the structure of the inner accretion disk and determine properties of the black hole. Includes animated gif. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "width": 1152, "height": 648, "pixels": 746496 } }, { "id": 268812, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423309, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/X-ray_Reverb_Still_print.jpg", "filename": "X-ray_Reverb_Still_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "X-rays from flares near the black hole reflect off gas in the surrounding accretion disk. When this light reaches the gas, it excites iron ions and causes them to fluoresce. This creates an X-ray echo that follows with a time delay depending on its distance from the source. Using this information, astronomers can explore the structure of the inner accretion disk and determine properties of the black hole. Includes animated gif. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 268809, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423306, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/X-ray_Reverb_Still.jpg", "filename": "X-ray_Reverb_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "X-rays from flares near the black hole reflect off gas in the surrounding accretion disk. When this light reaches the gas, it excites iron ions and causes them to fluoresce. This creates an X-ray echo that follows with a time delay depending on its distance from the source. Using this information, astronomers can explore the structure of the inner accretion disk and determine properties of the black hole. Includes animated gif. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "width": 3840, "height": 2160, "pixels": 8294400 } }, { "id": 268810, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423307, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/X-ray_Reverb_Still.png", "filename": "X-ray_Reverb_Still.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "X-rays from flares near the black hole reflect off gas in the surrounding accretion disk. When this light reaches the gas, it excites iron ions and causes them to fluoresce. This creates an X-ray echo that follows with a time delay depending on its distance from the source. Using this information, astronomers can explore the structure of the inner accretion disk and determine properties of the black hole. Includes animated gif. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "width": 3840, "height": 2160, "pixels": 8294400 } }, { "id": 268807, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423304, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/X-ray_Reverberation_Mapping_Diagram_ProRes_3840x2160.mov", "filename": "X-ray_Reverberation_Mapping_Diagram_ProRes_3840x2160.mov", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "X-rays from flares near the black hole reflect off gas in the surrounding accretion disk. When this light reaches the gas, it excites iron ions and causes them to fluoresce. This creates an X-ray echo that follows with a time delay depending on its distance from the source. Using this information, astronomers can explore the structure of the inner accretion disk and determine properties of the black hole. Includes animated gif. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "width": 3840, "height": 2160, "pixels": 8294400 } }, { "id": 268808, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 423305, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012265/X-ray_Reverberation_Mapping_Diagram_ProRes_3840x2160.webm", "filename": "X-ray_Reverberation_Mapping_Diagram_ProRes_3840x2160.webm", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "X-rays from flares near the black hole reflect off gas in the surrounding accretion disk. When this light reaches the gas, it excites iron ions and causes them to fluoresce. This creates an X-ray echo that follows with a time delay depending on its distance from the source. Using this information, astronomers can explore the structure of the inner accretion disk and determine properties of the black hole. Includes animated gif. 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Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: \"Teapot Waltz\" by Benjamin Parsons from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || Repeating_TDE_Still.jpg (1920x1080) [446.8 KB] || Repeating_TDE_Still_searchweb.png (320x180) [63.3 KB] || Repeating_TDE_Still_thm.png (80x40) [4.6 KB] || 14408_Repeating_TDE_sub100.mp4 (1920x1080) [89.7 MB] || Repeating_TDE_SRT_Captions.en_US.srt [1.7 KB] || Repeating_TDE_SRT_Captions.en_US.vtt [1.6 KB] || 14408_Repeating_TDE_ProRes_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [1.2 GB] || 14408_Repeating_TDE_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [186.2 MB] || ", "release_date": "2023-09-07T11:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-09-05T13:17:48.487954-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 858396, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014400/a014408/Repeating_TDE_Still.jpg", "filename": "Repeating_TDE_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Watch to learn how an update to NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory allowed it to catch a supersized black hole in a distant galaxy munching repeatedly on a circling star. \rCredit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center\rMusic: \"Teapot Waltz\" by Benjamin Parsons from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 12854, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12854/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NICER Charts the Area Around a New Black Hole", "description": "Watch how X-ray echoes, mapped by NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) revealed changes to the corona of black hole MAXI J1820+070.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: \"Superluminal\" from Killer TracksComplete transcript available. || Black_Hole_Corona_Still.jpg (1920x1080) [317.0 KB] || Black_Hole_Corona_Still_print.jpg (1024x576) [109.5 KB] || Black_Hole_Corona_Still_searchweb.png (320x180) [87.9 KB] || Black_Hole_Corona_Still_thm.png (80x40) [6.6 KB] || 12854_Black_Hole_Corona_ProRes_1920x1080.mov (1920x1080) [3.3 GB] || 12854_Black_Hole_Corona_1080p.mov (1920x1080) [515.0 MB] || 12854_Black_Hole_Corona.mp4 (1920x1080) [335.5 MB] || 12854_Black_Hole_Corona_small.mp4 (1920x1080) [135.2 MB] || 12854_Black_Hole_Corona_ProRes_1920x1080.webm (1920x1080) [26.7 MB] || 12854_Black_Hole_Corona_SRT_Captions.en_US.srt [4.5 KB] || 12854_Black_Hole_Corona_SRT_Captions.en_US.vtt [4.5 KB] || ", "release_date": "2019-01-30T12:30:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:46:09.289234-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 397684, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012800/a012854/Black_Hole_Corona_Still.jpg", "filename": "Black_Hole_Corona_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Watch how X-ray echoes, mapped by NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) revealed changes to the corona of black hole MAXI J1820+070.\rCredit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center\rMusic: \"Superluminal\" from Killer TracksComplete transcript available.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 10807, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10807/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA's Swift Satellite Spots Black Hole Devouring A Star", "description": "In late March 2011, NASA's Swift satellite alerted astronomers to intense and unusual high-energy flares from a new source in the constellation Draco. They soon realized that the source, which is now known as Swift J1644+57, was the result of a truly extraordinary event — the awakening of a distant galaxy's dormant black hole as it shredded and consumed a star. The galaxy is so far away that the radiation from the blast has traveled 3.9 billion years before reaching Earth. Most galaxies, including our own, possess a central supersized black hole weighing millions of times the sun's mass. According to the new studies, the black hole in the galaxy hosting Swift J1644+57 may be twice the mass of the four-million-solar-mass black hole lurking at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. As a star falls toward a black hole, it is ripped apart by intense tides. The gas is corralled into a disk that swirls around the black hole and becomes rapidly heated to temperatures of millions of degrees. The innermost gas in the disk spirals toward the black hole, where rapid motion and magnetism creates dual, oppositely directed \"funnels\" through which some particles may escape. Particle jets driving matter at velocities greater than 80-90 percent the speed of light form along the black hole's spin axis. In the case of Swift J1644+57, one of these jets happened to point straight at Earth.Theoretical studies of tidally disrupted stars suggested that they would appear as flares at optical and ultraviolet energies. The brightness and energy of a black hole's jet is greatly enhanced when viewed head-on. The phenomenon, called relativistic beaming, explains why Swift J1644+57 was seen at X-ray energies and appeared so strikingly luminous. When first detected on March 28, the flares were initially assumed to signal a gamma-ray burst, one of the nearly daily short blasts of high-energy radiation often associated with the death of a massive star and the birth of a black hole in the distant universe. But as the emission continued to brighten and flare, astronomers realized that the most plausible explanation was the tidal disruption of a sun-like star seen as beamed emission. || ", "release_date": "2011-08-24T13:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:40.776982-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 484419, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010807/BlackHoleAnimation_00730.jpg", "filename": "BlackHoleAnimation_00730.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "On March 28, 2011, NASA's Swift detected intense X-ray flares thought to be caused by a black hole devouring a star. In one model, illustrated here, a sun-like star on an eccentric orbit plunges too close to its galaxy's central black hole. About half of the star's mass feeds an accretion disk around the black hole, which in turn powers a particle jet that beams radiation toward Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }