【Sarah Shevon Archives】

Ages ago,Sarah Shevon Archives in a galaxy some 300 million light years away, an unwitting star veered fatally close to a powerful black hole. After shredding the star apart, the black hole ejected pulses of energy into the cosmos.

Astronomers received this ancient signal, made of x-rays, in 2014.

Now, a team of astrophysicists used these x-rays to reveal insights about this enigmatic black hole, specifically, how rapidly it's spinning. They published the study Wednesday in the journal Science.

"You're getting information from right next to the black hole," Dheeraj Pasham, an astrophysicist at MIT and the study's lead author, said in an interview. "You're getting information from the strongest gravity that can exist."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The black hole in question is thought to be super massive -- about 1 million times the mass of the sun. Accordingly, it has an immensely powerful gravitation pull. So when an unassuming star traversed near this black hole, it began to rip the star apart. This dramatic moment is called a tidal disruption event, or flare.

"It's just gravity -- but gravity in an extreme situation," Chris Fryer, an astrophysicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who had no involvement in the study, said in an interview.

These tidal disruption flares are critical to understanding the nature, and spin, of black holes that are actively consuming stars.

SEE ALSO: Scientists detect a repeating signal from deep space, but its origin is a mystery

As the black hole strips away the star, this volatile matter heats up to 1 million degrees Celsius as it gets pulled into a disk around the black hole, explained Pasham. This "star soup" then emits energy, in the form of x-rays, into space. In the case of this black hole, scientists found that a strong x-ray signal was emitted every 131 seconds over at least 450 days.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Critically, the hot disk is suspected to orbit just outside of the black hole's event horizon -- which is the point of no return. Not even light can escape.

"The key is figuring out how close the material can get to the black hole," said Pasham.

In other words, armed with evidence about how and where this disk of hot star matter was moving, combined with a good idea of the black hole's mass, Pasham said his team "teased out" the black hole's spin. It spins at about half the speed of light. Researchers have calculated black holes' speeds before, and they can spin faster than this one, but this one's speed is nothing to sneeze at.

"It's just a really rapidly spinning black hole," said Fryer.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

This method of studying black holes -- by observing the dramatic shredding of stars -- gives scientists improved insight into massive black holes that are actively ripping apart massive stars and creating disks of star matter. This is rare. Only about 5 percent of black holes are actively doing this.

"It's basically having access to this pool of supermassive black holes that have not been studied before," Pasham said.

Pasham plans to look for, and hopefully spot, more of these dramatic events in the cosmos. The aim is to continue unravelling the nature of black holes -- which are still largely enigmatic and relatively new to science.

"A little over 20 years ago we were not certain we could prove black holes existed," said Fryer. "Now, there is no one doubting it."

"The evidence keeps on piling up," he said.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Ever wonder how the universe might end?

---

• Digital Culture
• Science
• Deals
• Tech
• Entertainment
• Social Good
• Games
• Shopping

• The Loud American
• How to watch Elon Musk's "Saturday Night Live" performance, for free
• 'Borat' star sends glorious offer to men arrested for wearing mankinis
• This girl's scream is just like Homer Simpson's and it's amazing
• Junk Merchants
• 'Mythic Quest' Season 2 review: More heart, less focus
• Subaru reveals name and sneak peek of its first electric SUV
• Hear the hum of NASA's Mars helicopter as it takes off
• GeForce RTX 2080 Ti & 2080 Mega Benchmark
• The future of cashback is here: credit cards

• Amazon Big Spring Sale 2025: Best fitness tracker deals
• Webb telescope captures weird auroras on Neptune for the first time
• Amazon Spring Sale 2025: Save $100 on Amazon Fire TV 4
• Over 25 beauty deals under $25 to shop during Amazon's Big Spring Sale
• Amazon Spring Sale 2025: Best self
• Amazon Spring Sale 2025: Best noise
• 'The White Lotus' Season 3 soundtrack is a treasure trove of Thai music
• Amazon Big Spring Sale 2025: Save $300 on Google Pixel 9 Pro
• Online gambling is everywhere. Mindfulness can help.
• Amazon Big Spring Sale Levoit vacuum deal: Save $100

• Epic Systems v. The Work Force
• A Q&A with the host of 'Exit Scam,' a podcast about QuadrigaCX
• 'Weird Al' Yankovic is protecting his good name from other, terrible Als
• Lyft and Uber step up with free rides to all vaccine appointments
• Looking for Twin Peaks
• PHOTO: First look at Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Killers of the Flower Moon'
• This writer's emotional post about depression is actually incredibly uplifting
• 'Weird Al' Yankovic is protecting his good name from other, terrible Als
• The Unofficial Chief of Staff
• Brands have no idea how to deal with being caught in a political firestorm

• The Online Culture Wars
• How ExxonMobil shifts blame to individuals like you for climate change
• Ford will reveal F
• Subaru reveals name and sneak peek of its first electric SUV
• Peasants of Code
• The worst questions you’ll hear this Thanksgiving and how to redirect the conversation
• How to add your pronouns to your Instagram profile
• Turkish capital bans all LGBTQ public events
• Over Our Heads
• Twitter's Tip Jar might share your home address if you're not careful