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Tag: Stars

  • India launches a spacecraft to study the sun after successful landing near the moon’s south pole

    India launches a spacecraft to study the sun after successful landing near the moon’s south pole

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    NEW DELHI — India launched its first space mission to study the sun on Saturday, less than two weeks after a successful uncrewed landing near the south polar region of the moon.

    The Aditya-L1 spacecraft took off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space center in southern India on a quest to study the sun from a point about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. The point, known as L1, affords an uninterrupted view of the sun.

    The spacecraft is equipped with seven payloads to study the sun’s corona, chromosphere, photosphere and solar wind, the Indian Space Research Organization said.

    After over an hour, the ISRO said the launch was “accomplished successfully.”

    “The vehicle has placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit. India’s first solar observatory has begun its journey to the destination of Sun-Earth L1 point,” ISRO posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

    The satellite is scheduled to take 125 days to reach the L1 point.

    India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole on Aug. 23 — a historic voyage to uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water. After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India joined the United States, Russia and China as only the fourth country to achieve the milestone.

    Jitendra Singh, India’s junior minister for science and technology, praised the ISRO officials for their work on the latest launch.

    “Congratulations India. Congratulations ISRO,” he said while being present at the ISRO control room. “It’s a sunshine moment for India.”

    The sun study, combined with India’s successful moon landing, would completely change the image of the ISRO in the world community, said Manish Purohit, a former scientist at the research organization.

    Hundreds of people who had gathered to watch the launch cheered as India’s sun mission took off.

    Among the spectators, Prakash, who gave only one name, said the launch was “one more milestone” like the country’s recent moon mission. “This is going to set the bar high for ISRO,” he said.

    “We are privileged to be Indian and witness this kind of developmental activities on the space center for India,” said Sridevi, who also gave only one name.

    Once in place, the satellite would provide reliable forewarning of an onslaught of particles and radiation from heightened solar activity that has the potential to knock out power grids on Earth, said B.R. Guruprasad, a space scientist, in an article in The Times of India newspaper. The advanced warning can protect the satellites that are the backbone of the global economic structure as well as the people living in space stations.

    “Those seven payloads are going to study the sun as a star in all the possible spectrum positions that we have visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray. … It’s like we’re going to get a black and white image, the color image and the high-definition image, 4K image of the sun, so that we don’t miss out on anything that is happening on the sun,” Purohit said.

    —-

    AP video journalist Shonal Ganguly contributed to this report.

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  • India launches a spacecraft to study the sun after successful landing near the moon’s south pole

    India launches a spacecraft to study the sun after successful landing near the moon’s south pole

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    NEW DELHI — India launched its first space mission to study the sun on Saturday, less than two weeks after a successful uncrewed landing near the south polar region of the moon.

    The Aditya-L1 spacecraft took off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space center in southern India on a quest to study the sun from a point about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. The point, known as L1, affords an uninterrupted view of the sun.

    The spacecraft is equipped with seven payloads to study the sun’s corona, chromosphere, photosphere and solar wind, the Indian Space Research Organization said.

    After over an hour, the ISRO said the launch was “accomplished successfully.”

    “The vehicle has placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit. India’s first solar observatory has begun its journey to the destination of Sun-Earth L1 point,” ISRO posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

    The satellite is scheduled to take 125 days to reach the L1 point.

    India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole on Aug. 23 — a historic voyage to uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water. After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India joined the United States, Russia and China as only the fourth country to achieve the milestone.

    Jitendra Singh, India’s junior minister for science and technology, praised the ISRO officials for their work on the latest launch.

    “Congratulations India. Congratulations ISRO,” he said while being present at the ISRO control room. “It’s a sunshine moment for India.”

    The sun study, combined with India’s successful moon landing, would completely change the image of the ISRO in the world community, said Manish Purohit, a former scientist at the research organization.

    Hundreds of people who had gathered to watch the launch cheered as India’s sun mission took off.

    Among the spectators, Prakash, who gave only one name, said the launch was “one more milestone” like the country’s recent moon mission. “This is going to set the bar high for ISRO,” he said.

    “We are privileged to be Indian and witness this kind of developmental activities on the space center for India,” said Sridevi, who also gave only one name.

    Once in place, the satellite would provide reliable forewarning of an onslaught of particles and radiation from heightened solar activity that has the potential to knock out power grids on Earth, said B.R. Guruprasad, a space scientist, in an article in The Times of India newspaper. The advanced warning can protect the satellites that are the backbone of the global economic structure as well as the people living in space stations.

    “Those seven payloads are going to study the sun as a star in all the possible spectrum positions that we have visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray. … It’s like we’re going to get a black and white image, the color image and the high-definition image, 4K image of the sun, so that we don’t miss out on anything that is happening on the sun,” Purohit said.

    —-

    AP video journalist Shonal Ganguly contributed to this report.

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  • India launches a spacecraft to study the sun after successful landing near the moon’s south pole

    India launches a spacecraft to study the sun after successful landing near the moon’s south pole

    [ad_1]

    NEW DELHI — India launched its first space mission to study the sun on Saturday, less than two weeks after a successful uncrewed landing near the south polar region of the moon.

    The Aditya-L1 spacecraft took off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space center in southern India on a quest to study the sun from a point about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. The point, known as L1, affords an uninterrupted view of the sun.

    The spacecraft is equipped with seven payloads to study the sun’s corona, chromosphere, photosphere and solar wind, the Indian Space Research Organization said.

    After over an hour, the ISRO said the launch was “accomplished successfully.”

    “The vehicle has placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit. India’s first solar observatory has begun its journey to the destination of Sun-Earth L1 point,” ISRO posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

    The satellite is scheduled to take 125 days to reach the L1 point.

    India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole on Aug. 23 — a historic voyage to uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water. After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India joined the United States, Russia and China as only the fourth country to achieve the milestone.

    Jitendra Singh, India’s junior minister for science and technology, praised the ISRO officials for their work on the latest launch.

    “Congratulations India. Congratulations ISRO,” he said while being present at the ISRO control room. “It’s a sunshine moment for India.”

    The sun study, combined with India’s successful moon landing, would completely change the image of the ISRO in the world community, said Manish Purohit, a former scientist at the research organization.

    Hundreds of people who had gathered to watch the launch cheered as India’s sun mission took off.

    Among the spectators, Prakash, who gave only one name, said the launch was “one more milestone” like the country’s recent moon mission. “This is going to set the bar high for ISRO,” he said.

    “We are privileged to be Indian and witness this kind of developmental activities on the space center for India,” said Sridevi, who also gave only one name.

    Once in place, the satellite would provide reliable forewarning of an onslaught of particles and radiation from heightened solar activity that has the potential to knock out power grids on Earth, said B.R. Guruprasad, a space scientist, in an article in The Times of India newspaper. The advanced warning can protect the satellites that are the backbone of the global economic structure as well as the people living in space stations.

    “Those seven payloads are going to study the sun as a star in all the possible spectrum positions that we have visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray. … It’s like we’re going to get a black and white image, the color image and the high-definition image, 4K image of the sun, so that we don’t miss out on anything that is happening on the sun,” Purohit said.

    —-

    AP video journalist Shonal Ganguly contributed to this report.

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  • India launches its space mission to study the sun after successfully landing a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole

    India launches its space mission to study the sun after successfully landing a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole

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    India launches its space mission to study the sun after successfully landing a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole

    ByABC News

    September 2, 2023, 2:41 AM

    NEW DELHI — India launches its space mission to study the sun after successfully landing a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole.

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  • Manhattanhenge is a bust as clouds hide NYC sunset. Last chance this year is Thursday

    Manhattanhenge is a bust as clouds hide NYC sunset. Last chance this year is Thursday

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    NEW YORK (AP) — There’s only one more chance this year to possibly take in Manhattanhenge, the biannual alignment of the setting sun with the city’s east-west streets that brings New Yorkers out of their apartments to watch it bathe the urban canyons in a rosy glow.

    With gray, gloomy weather socking in the horizon at Wednesday’s sundown, fans of the spectacle will have to hope the clouds part Thursday.

    “I tried but it’s not going to happen today,” said Kevin Andrade, a restaurant server who had the day off and waited in hopes of a fiery sky show on West 23rd Street. “I’m so sad about it.”

    Vermonters are working to dry out homes and businesses damaged by this week’s historic flooding and keeping a wary eye on the horizon with another round of storms on the horizon.

    Authorities in New York have arrested a man in connection with some of the killings on Long Island known as the Gilgo Beach murders.

    Vermonters are working to dry out homes and businesses damaged by this week’s historic flooding and keeping a wary eye on the horizon, with another round of storms in the forecast this weekend.

    Mozambique’s former finance minister has pleaded not guilty in U.S. federal court in connection with a $2 billion corruption and money laundering scandal.

    It was Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, who coined the term Manhattanhenge to describe the phenomenon. He was inspired by Stonehenge, where tourists and modern-day Druids camp out on the summer solstice to watch the rising sun align with the prehistoric stones.

    Manhattanhenge attracts its own Druids when it happens for two nights around Memorial Day and another two in mid-July. Devotees line thoroughfares like 42nd and 34th streets to watch the sun’s disc sink below the horizon, perfectly framed by the gleaming towers.

    “We have had luck in the past when the weather clears,” said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History whose sold-out lecture on Manhattanhenge on Thursday will be followed by a free public viewing party. “All we need is for it to be clear at sunset.”

    There are are also sunrise Manhattanhenge days in December and January, but those have not drawn crowds for reasons including the hour and the chill, Faherty said.

    Other cities where streets align with the sun on certain days include Boston and Toronto. The best-known urban “henge” other than New York’s is Chicagohenge, which happens during the spring and fall equinox.

    Faherty said she prefers Manhattanhenge because New York has more iconic skyscrapers and the Hudson River to the west provides “a visual break in the landscape of buildings.”

    Weather permitting, fans will flood the streets and point their phones and cameras at the fading light.

    “In this era of social media, it’s a gorgeous picture,” Faherty said. “I often call it the Instagram holiday for New York City.”

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  • All hail the rising sun! Stonehenge welcomes 8,000 visitors for the summer solstice

    All hail the rising sun! Stonehenge welcomes 8,000 visitors for the summer solstice

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    STONEHENGE, England (AP) — All hail the rising sun.

    Around 8,000 revelers gathered around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun, or to have some communal fun.

    Druids, pagans, hippies, local residents and tourists, many clad in an array of colorful costumes and even antlers, stayed and celebrated at Stonehenge for the night and greeted sunrise on Wednesday, which is the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere.

    At dawn, the sun rose behind what is known as the Heel Stone in the northeast part of the horizon and the first rays shone into the heart of Stonehenge, one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments and a World Heritage Site.

    A sun-filled dawn followed a slightly misty sunrise, which was greeted with drumming, chanting and cheering.

    “Stonehenge continues to captivate and to bring people together to celebrate the seasons, just as it has done for thousands of years,” said Nichola Tasker, director of Stonehenge at English Heritage, a charity that manages hundreds of historic sites.

    “There was a wonderful atmosphere from sunset to sunrise, and everybody enjoyed a very atmospheric morning,” she added.

    Local police said two people were arrested on suspicion of a public order offense after they were refused entry due to intoxication.

    “Everyone has been joyous, enjoying the event and having a glorious time and it has been peaceful and safe,” said Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper, who attended the solstice for the first time.

    In addition to the 8,000 people present, English Heritage said that approximately 154,000 people tuned in from around the world to watch the sunset and sunrise on the charity’s livestream.

    All over the U.K., optimism will reign supreme as summer officially starts. It’s no coincidence that the nearby Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s biggest music events, opens its doors on Wednesday, too. Both Stonehenge and Glastonbury supposedly lie on ley lines — mystical energy connections across the U.K.

    For the thousands making the pilgrimage to Stonehenge, approximately 80 miles (128 kilometers) southwest of London, it is more than looking forward to Elton John at Glastonbury or a few ciders in the sun. Many of those present at Stonehenge will be making the short 50-mile (80-kilometer) journey further west to Glastonbury over the coming days.

    For druids, modern-day spiritualists linked to the ancient Celtic religious order, Stonehenge has a centuries-long importance, and they performed their rituals around the solstice in their traditional white robes. It’s effectively all about the cycle of life, of death and rebirth.

    This year, the summer solstice at Stonehenge started at 7 p.m. Tuesday and ran through 8 a.m. Wednesday. For this one night, worshippers are allowed to spend time inside the stone circle. Some chanted or played their acoustic guitars or banged their drums. Alcohol was prohibited, as were sound systems. Blankets were allowed, but no sleeping bags, please. And definitely, no climbing on the stones.

    The rules have been tightened over the decades, certainly during the coronavirus pandemic. Back in the less-restrained past, tens of thousands would travel by foot, car, bus or motorcycle to worship at the solar temple, or just have a bit of fun.

    Stonehenge is a symbol of British culture and history and remains one of the country’s biggest tourist draws, despite the seemingly permanent traffic jams on the nearby A303 highway, a popular route for motorists traveling to and from the southwest of England.

    Stonehenge was built on the flat lands of Salisbury Plain in stages starting 5,000 years ago, with the unique stone circle erected in the late Neolithic period about 2,500 B.C. Some of the stones, the so-called bluestones, are known to have come from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, nearly 150 miles (240 kilometers) away, but the origins of others remain a mystery.

    The site’s meaning has been the subject of vigorous debate, with some theories seemingly more outlandish, if not alien, than others.

    English Heritage notes several explanations — from Stonehenge being a coronation place for Danish kings, a druid temple, a cult center for healing, or an astronomical computer for predicting eclipses and solar events.

    The charity said the most generally accepted interpretation “is that of a prehistoric temple aligned with the movements of the sun.”

    After all, the stones match perfectly with the sun at both the summer and winter solstices.

    ___

    Pylas reported from London.

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  • Stunning mosaic of baby star clusters created from 1 million telescope shots

    Stunning mosaic of baby star clusters created from 1 million telescope shots

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    Astronomers have created a stunning mosaic of baby star clusters hiding in our galactic backyard

    ByMARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have created a stunning mosaic of baby star clusters hiding in our galactic backyard.

    The montage, published Thursday, reveals five vast stellar nurseries less than 1,500 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

    To come up with their atlas, scientists pieced together more than 1 million images taken over five years by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The observatory’s infrared survey telescope was able to peer through clouds of dust and discern infant stars.

    “We can detect even the faintest sources of light, like stars far less massive than the sun, revealing objects that no one has ever seen before,” University of Vienna’s Stefan Meingast, the lead author, said in a statement.

    The observations, conducted from 2017 to 2022, will help researchers better understand how stars evolve from dust, Meingast said.

    The findings, appearing in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, complement observations by the European Space Agency’s star-mapping Gaia spacecraft, orbiting nearly 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away.

    Gaia focuses on optical light, missing most of the objects obscured by cosmic dust, the researchers said.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • It’s the first day of spring: Here’s what that really means

    It’s the first day of spring: Here’s what that really means

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    NEW YORK — Spring has sprung!

    Monday marked the spring equinox — at least for those in the Northern Hemisphere.

    But what does that actually mean?

    WHAT IS THE SPRING EQUINOX?

    As the Earth travels around the sun, it does so at an angle.

    For most of the year, the Earth’s axis is tilted either toward or away from the sun. That means the sun’s warmth and light fall unequally on the northern and southern halves of the planet.

    During the equinox, the Earth’s axis and its orbit line up so that both hemispheres get an equal amount of sunlight.

    The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning equal and night. That’s because on the equinox, day and night last almost the same amount of time — though one may get a few extra minutes, depending on where you are on the planet.

    The spring — or vernal — equinox can land on March 19, 20 or 21, depending on the year. This year it landed on Monday at 5:24 p.m. Eastern time.

    WHY ARE THERE TWO KINDS OF SPRINGS?

    There are two different ways to carve up the year: Meteorological and astronomical seasons.

    Meteorological seasons are defined by the weather. They break down the year into three-month seasons based on annual temperature cycles.

    By that calendar, spring already started on March 1, and will run until May 31.

    But astronomical seasons depend on how the Earth moves around the sun.

    Equinoxes, when the sun lands equally on both hemispheres, mark the start of spring and autumn. Solstices, when the Earth sees its strongest tilt toward or away from the sun, kick off summer and winter.

    WHAT TO EXPECT NOW THAT SPRING IS HERE?

    For those north of the equator, daylight will keep stretching longer— with earlier sunrises and later sunsets — until the summer solstice in June. The new season signals warmer weather, budding plants and migrating animals.

    The Southern Hemisphere will see the opposite: Days will keep getting shorter as this half of the planet heads out of summer and into autumn.

    According to the U.S. government’s national outlook for the season, this spring is expected to bring wet weather that will continue to ease drought conditions in the western parts of the country. Melting snowpack may also bring flood risks in the Midwest.

    Much of the southern and eastern U.S. may see warmer than usual temperatures this spring, while parts of the Great Basin and northern Plains will likely be chillier than average.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • ‘Big Short’ trader Danny Moses warns Silicon Valley Bank collapse will expose more trouble

    ‘Big Short’ trader Danny Moses warns Silicon Valley Bank collapse will expose more trouble

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  • Space telescope uncovers massive galaxies near cosmic dawn

    Space telescope uncovers massive galaxies near cosmic dawn

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    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have discovered what appear to be massive galaxies dating back to within 600 million years of the Big Bang, suggesting the early universe may have had a stellar fast-track that produced these “monsters.”

    While the new James Webb Space Telescope has spotted even older galaxies, dating to within a mere 300 million years of the beginning of the universe, it’s the size and maturity of these six apparent mega-galaxies that stun scientists. They reported their findings Wednesday.

    Lead researcher Ivo Labbe of Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology and his team expected to find little baby galaxies this close to the dawn of the universe — not these whoppers.

    “While most galaxies in this era are still small and only gradually growing larger over time,” he said in an email, “there are a few monsters that fast-track to maturity. Why this is the case or how this would work is unknown.”

    Each of the six objects looks to weigh billions of times more than our sun. In one of them, the total weight of all its stars may be as much as 100 billion times greater than our sun, according to the scientists, who published their findings in the journal Nature.

    Yet these galaxies are believed to be extremely compact, squeezing in as many stars as our own Milky Way, but in a relatively tiny slice of space, according to Labbe.

    Labbe said he and his team didn’t think the results were real at first — that there couldn’t be galaxies as mature as the Milky Way so early in time — and they still need to be confirmed. The objects appeared so big and bright that some members of the team thought they had made a mistake.

    “We were mind-blown, kind of incredulous,” Labbe said.

    The Pennsylvania State University’s Joel Leja, who took part in the study, calls them “universe breakers.”

    “The revelation that massive galaxy formation began extremely early in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was settled science,” Leja said in a statement. “It turns out we found something so unexpected it actually creates problems for science. It calls the whole picture of early galaxy formation into question.”

    These galaxy observations were among the first data set that came from the $10 billion Webb telescope, launched just over a year ago. NASA and the European Space Agency’s Webb is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, coming up on the 33rd anniversary of its launch.

    Unlike Hubble, the bigger and more powerful Webb can peer through clouds of dust with its infrared vision and discover galaxies previously unseen. Scientists hope to eventually observe the first stars and galaxies formed following the creation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago.

    The researchers still are awaiting official confirmation through sensitive spectroscopy, careful to call these candidate massive galaxies for now. Leja said it’s possible that a few of the objects might not be galaxies, but obscured supermassive black holes.

    While some may prove to be smaller, “odds are good at least some of them will turn out to be” galactic giants, Labbe said. “The next year will tell us.”

    One early lesson from Webb is “to let go of your expectations and be ready to be surprised,” he said.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • ZTF makes first discovery of a rare cosmic “lunch”

    ZTF makes first discovery of a rare cosmic “lunch”

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    Newswise — The universe can be a violent place. Stars die or collide with each other and black holes devour everything that gets too close. These and other events produce flashes of light in the night sky that astronomers call transients. The Zwicky Transient Facility is currently one of the largest transient surveys astronomers use to study the ever-changing universe. The survey is also a treasure trove of rare, strange, and unusual events that often astronomers discover by chance. 

    “Our new search technique helps us to quickly identify rare cosmic events in the ZTF survey data. And since ZTF and upcoming larger surveys such as Vera Rubin’s LSST scan the sky so frequently, we can now expect to uncover a wealth of rare, or previously undiscovered cosmic events and study them in detail”, says Igor Andreoni, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Astronomy at UMD and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. 

    AT2022cmc is a peculiar case of what is known as a tidal-disruption event or TDE. TDEs happen with a star approaching a black hole is violently ripped apart by the black hole’s gravitational tidal forces—similar to how the Moon pulls tides on Earth but with greater strength. Then, pieces of the star are captured into a swiftly spinning disk orbiting the black hole. Finally, the black hole consumes what remains of the doomed star in the disk. 

    In some extremely rare cases such as AT2022cmc, the supermassive black hole launches “relativistic jets”—beams of matter traveling close to the speed of light—after destroying a star. Discovered in Feb 2022, astronomers led by Andreoni followed up AT2022cmc and observed it with multiple facilities at multiple wavelengths. The analysis is now published in the journal Nature. 

    “The last time scientists discovered one of these jets was well over a decade ago,” said Michael Coughlin, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and co-lead on the paper. “From the data we have, we can estimate that relativistic jets are launched in only 1% of these destructive events, making AT2022cmc an extremely rare occurrence. In fact, the luminous flash from the event is among the brightest ever observed.”

    The novel data-crunching method – equivalent to searching through a million pages of information every night –  allowed Andreoni and colleagues to conduct a rapid analysis of the ZTF data and identify the AT2022cmc TDE with relativistic jets. They quickly started follow-up observations that revealed an exceptionally bright event across the electromagnetic spectrum, from the X-rays to the millimeter and radio.

    ESO’s Very Large Telescope revealed that AT2022cmc was at a cosmological distance of 8.5 billion light years away. The Hubble Space Telescope optical/infrared images and radio observations from the Very Large Array pinpointed the location of AT2022cmc with extreme precision. 

    The researchers believe that AT2022cmc was at the center of a galaxy that is not yet visible because the light from AT2022cmc outshone it, but future space observations with Hubble or James Webb Space Telescopes may unveil the galaxy when the transient eventually disappears.

    It is still a mystery why some TDEs launch jets while others may not. From their observations, Andreoni and his team concluded that the black holes in AT2022cmc and other similarly jetted TDEs are likely spinning rapidly so as to power the extremely luminous jets. This suggests that a rapid black hole spin may be one necessary ingredient for jet launching—an idea that brings researchers closer to understanding the physics of supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies billions of light years away.

    Before AT2022cmc, only a couple of possible jetted TDEs were known, primarily discovered by gamma-ray space missions, which detect the highest-energy forms of radiation produced by these jets. With their new method, astronomers can now search for such rare events in ground-based optical surveys. 

    “Astronomy is changing rapidly,” Andreoni said. “More optical and infrared all-sky surveys are now active or will soon come online. Scientists can use AT2022cmc as a model for what to look for and find more disruptive events from distant black holes. This means that more than ever, big data mining is an important tool to advance our knowledge of the universe.”

    The paper, “A very luminous jet from the disruption of a star by a massive black hole,” is published in Nature on November 30, 2022.
    DOI: DOI : 10.1038/s41586-022-05465-8

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    California Institute of Technology

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