Scientists throw model stars at a virtual black hole to see who survives

From left to right, this illustration shows four snapshots of a virtual sun-like star as it approaches a black hole 1 million times the mass of the Sun. The star stretches, loses some mass and then begins to regain its shape as it moves away from the black hole. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Taeho Ryu (MPA)

See how eight stars orbit a black hole 1 million times the mass of the Sun in these supercomputer simulations. As they approach, everyone is stretched and deformed by the gravity of the black hole. Some are completely pulled apart in a long stream of gas, a catastrophic phenomenon called a tidal outbreak. Others are only partially disturbed, retaining some of their mass, and returning to their normal forms after their horrific encounters.

These simulations, led by Taeho Ryu, a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany, are the first to combine the physical effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity with realistic star density models. The virtual stars range from about one tenth to 10 times the mass of the Sun.

The division between stars that completely disrupt and those that endure is not just related to mass. Instead, survival depends more on the density of the star.

Watch eight model stars stretch and deform as they approach a virtual black hole 1 million times the mass of the Sun. The black hole tears some stars apart into a stream of gas, a phenomenon called a tidal break. Others manage to resist their close encounters. These simulations show that destruction and survival depend on the initial densities of the stars. Yellow represents the greatest density, blue the least dense. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Taeho Ryu (MPA)

Ryu and his team also investigated how other characteristics, such as different black hole masses and the stars’ close approaches, affect events with tidal outages. The results will help astronomers assess how often full tidal outages occur in the universe and will help them build more accurate images of these catastrophic cosmic events.

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Researcher reports new information about black holes

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More information:
Taeho Ryu et al., Tidal Disorders of Main Sequence Stars. I. Observable amounts and their dependence on star and black hole mass, The Astrophysical Journal (2020). DOI: 10.3847 / 1538-4357 / abb3cf

Provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Citation: Scientists throw model stars at a virtual black hole to see who survives (2021, November 26) retrieved November 26, 2021 from https://ift.tt/3cPN8bB -hole.html

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