Hole-y crap!

A new scientific animation projects how black holes decimate stars that come into their wake and, in the words of researchers, they consume the solar entities “like a messy toddler — taking a few bites and then flinging the remains across the galaxy.”

Researchers at Northwestern University created intricate 3D simulations of black holes and then “hurled stars” — about the size of our sun — towards them just “to see what might happen.”

“When a star approaches an intermediate-mass black hole, it initially gets caught in the black hole’s orbit…After that, the black hole begins its lengthy and violent meal,” according to the Chicago school.

“Every time the star makes a lap, the black hole takes a bite — further cannibalizing the star with each passage. Eventually, nothing is left but the star’s misshapen and incredibly dense core.”

The black hole regurgitates the star’s remains as they fly “safely across the galaxy.” 

Aside from the astonishing visuals, these simulations are also giving astronomers a new leg up to identify black holes in the night sky.

“We obviously cannot observe black holes directly because they don’t emit light,” said study lead Fulya Kıroğlu.

“So, instead, we have to look at the interactions between black holes and their environments. We found that stars undergo multiple passages before being ejected. After each passage, they lose more mass, causing a flair of light as its ripped apart. Each flare is brighter than the last, creating a signature that might help astronomers find them.”

Although the proof of low- and high-mass black holes is concrete, this experiment dialed in on the more “elusive” intermediate-sized ones — still potentially thousands of times larger than the size of our sun.

“Their presence is still debated,” Kıroğlu said. “Astrophysicists have uncovered evidence that they exist, but that evidence can often be explained by other mechanisms. For example, what appears to be an intermediate-mass black hole might actually be the accumulation of stellar-mass black holes.” 

In exploration of the holes, Kıroğlu and her researchers developed the hydrodynamic simulations of deep space.

“We can calculate specifically which particle is bound to the star and which particle is disrupted (or no longer bound to the star),” Kıroğlu said. 

What was learned is that stars can orbit an intermediate-mass black hole up to five times prior to being rejected.

“With each pass around the black hole, the star loses more and more of its mass as its ripped apart. Then, the black hole kicks the leftovers — moving at searing speeds — back out into the galaxy,” according to the researchers. “The repeating pattern would create a stunning light show that should help astronomers recognize — and prove the existence of — intermediate-mass black holes.”