Thursday, August 25, 2011

NASA Swift: Black Hole event horizon

This illustration released by the journal Nature on shows an artist’s conception of the unusual gamma-ray transient Swift J164449.3+573451.

It shows the birth of a relativistic jet from a tidally disrupted star near the event horizon of a supermassive black hole.

This highly energetic event was serendipitously beamed towards the Earth. A black hole described as a "cosmic monster" lurking at the heart of a galaxy has been recorded as it tore apart a star.

On March 25, NASA's Swift orbital telescope captured a surge of X-rays from deep space, disgorged by what was clearly an immensely powerful source.

Picture: AFP PHOTO / NATURE - AMADEO BACHAR

No comments:

Post a Comment