Sentences with phrase «called tidal disruption»

This sort of event is called a tidal disruption event, and has been observed only about 10 times till date.

When a supermassive black hole does exactly that to a star — sphagettifying the burning ball of gas into shreds and devouring it as it comes too close to the black hole's event horizon — the phenomenon is called a tidal disruption event.

Dozens of these so - called tidal disruption events have been detected since the 1990s, but none that remained bright for nearly as long as this one,» Dacheng Lin, a research scientist at the University of North Hampshire and the lead author of the paper, said in a statement.

In a rare stroke of luck, astronomers have caught a glimpse of one of these so - called tidal disruption events, using the x-rays it produced to map out the disk surrounding the black hole.

Not exact matches

Astronomers have caught a handful of black holes in the act of eating stars, a process they call «tidal disruption.»