Supermassive black holes rip up and devour hapless stars a hundred times more frequently than thought, according to research published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Scientists had previously calculated that such cosmic cannibalism was extremely rare, happening once every 10,000 to 100,000 years per galaxy.
But the authors of a new study said they spotted a star being destroyed by a black hole in a survey of only 15 galaxy collisions — an extremely small sample size by astronomy standards.
“Our surprising findings show that when two galaxies collide, it dramatically increases how often stars get ripped apart and swallowed,” co-author James Mullaney, an astronomer at the University of Sheffield, told AFP.
For the new study, a team led by astronomer Clive Tadhunter, also from Sheffield, analysed 15 colliding galaxies, each containing billions of stars.
“Our study shows that galaxy collisions play an important role in causing stars to fall toward black holes. From Earth we’d see these events as a flare of light lasting a few months, or even years,” said Mullaney.
The findings were based on observations made with the William Herschel Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands.
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