Treffer: An ultraviolet―optical flare from the tidal disruption of a helium―rich stellar core

Title:
An ultraviolet―optical flare from the tidal disruption of a helium―rich stellar core
Authors:
GEZARI, S, CHORNOCK, R, LAWRENCE, A, NORMAN, C, NARAYAN, G, FOLEY, R. J, MARION, G. H, SCOLNIC, D, CHOMIUK, L, SODERBERG, A, SMITH, K, KIRSHNER, R. P, REST, A, RIESS, A. G, SMARTT, S. J, STUBBS, C. W, TONRY, J. L, WOOD-VASEY, W. M, BURGETT, W. S, CHAMBERS, K. C, GRAV, T, HEASLEY, J. N, KAISER, N, HUBER, M. E, KUDRITZKI, R.-P, MAGNIER, E. A, MORGAN, J. S, PRICE, P. A, FORSTER, K, BERGER, E, CHALLIS, P. J, NEILL, J. D, MARTIN, D. C, HECKMAN, T
Source:
Nature (London). 485(7397):217-220
Publisher Information:
London: Nature Publishing Group, 2012.
Publication Year:
2012
Physical Description:
print, 29 ref
Original Material:
INIST-CNRS
Subject Terms:
Multidisciplinary, Multidisciplinaire, Sciences exactes et technologie, Exact sciences and technology, Terre, ocean, espace, Earth, ocean, space, Astronomie, Astronomy, Systèmes stellaires. Objets et systèmes galactiques et extragalactiques. L'univers, Stellar systems. Galactic and extragalactic objects and systems. The universe, Caractéristiques et propriétés des galaxies externes et des objets extragalactiques, Characteristics and properties of external galaxies and extragalactic objects, Noyaux galactiques (incluant les trous noirs), matière circumnucléaire et bulbes, Galactic nuclei (including black holes), circumnuclear matter, and bulges, Accrétion, Accretion, Continuum, Continuo, Cosmologie, Cosmology, Courbe lumière, Light curves, Déplacement vers le rouge, Red shift, Emission radioélectrique, Radio emission, Emisión radioeléctrica, Etoile Be, Be stars, Galaxies, Luminosité, Luminosity, Noyau stellaire, Stellar cores, Rayonnement synchrotron, Synchrotron radiation, Sursaut optique, Optical burst, Arrebato óptico, Taux accrétion, Accretion rate, Índice acreción, Trou noir supermassif, Supermassive black hole, Agujero negro supermasivo, Trou noir, Black holes
Document Type:
Fachzeitschrift Article
File Description:
text
Language:
English
Author Affiliations:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States
Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, United Kingdom
Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 INN, United Kingdom
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, United States
Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Center, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, United States
Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Tucson, Arizona 85719, United States
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
California Institute of Technology,1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
ISSN:
0028-0836
Access URL:
http://pascal-francis.inist.fr/vibad/index.php?action=search&terms=25857054
Rights:
Copyright 2015 INIST-CNRS
CC BY 4.0
Sauf mention contraire ci-dessus, le contenu de cette notice bibliographique peut être utilisé dans le cadre d’une licence CC BY 4.0 Inist-CNRS / Unless otherwise stated above, the content of this bibliographic record may be used under a CC BY 4.0 licence by Inist-CNRS / A menos que se haya señalado antes, el contenido de este registro bibliográfico puede ser utilizado al amparo de una licencia CC BY 4.0 Inist-CNRS
Notes:
Astronomy
Accession Number:
edscal.25857054
Database:
PASCAL Archive

Weitere Informationen

The flare of radiation from the tidal disruption and accretion of a star can be used as a marker for supermassive black holes that otherwise lie dormant and undetected in the centres of distant galaxies'. Previous candidate flares2-6 have had declining light curves in good agreement with expectations, but with poor constraints on the time of disruption and the type of star disrupted, because the rising emission was not observed. Recently, two 'relativistic' candidate tidal disruption events were discovered, each of whose extreme X-ray luminosity and synchrotron radio emission were interpreted as the onset of emission from a relativistic jet7―10. Here we report a luminous ultraviolet-optical flare from the nuclear region of an inactive galaxy at a redshift of 0.1696. The observed continuum is cooler than expected for a simple accreting debris disk, but the well-sampled rise and decay of the light curve follow the predicted mass accretion rate and can be modelled to determine the time of disruption to an accuracy of two days. The black hole has a mass of about two million solar masses, modulo a factor dependent on the mass and radius of the star disrupted. On the basis of the spectroscopic signature of ionized helium from the unbound debris, we determine that the disrupted star was a helium-rich stellar core.