超大質(zhì)量黑洞都以同樣的方式進(jìn)食，但改變了它們的“情緒光照”

超大質(zhì)量黑洞都以同樣的方式進(jìn)食，但改變了它們的“情緒光照”

At the center of almost every galaxy, there is a supermassive black hole. Some are very active, constantly feeding on materials, while others are quiet and only occasionally snack on the poor unfortunate stars that end up too close to them.

幾乎每個(gè)星系的中心都有一個(gè)超大質(zhì)量黑洞。一些非常活躍，不斷地以物質(zhì)為食，而另一些很安靜，只是偶爾地以可憐的不幸的恒星為食，因?yàn)樗鼈冸x自己太近了。

Alfredo Carpineti

The latter types have been at the center of a mystery. When stars are being destroyed and eaten by a black hole, they emit either visible light or X-rays, but never both, so astronomers wondered if they were observing two different dining styles. In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers write that they believe this difference in “mood lighting”, as they call it, is the result of us observing two different moments during the black hole feast.

后者一直是一個(gè)謎的中心。當(dāng)恒星被黑洞摧毀并吞噬時(shí)，它們會(huì)發(fā)出可見光或x射線，但不會(huì)同時(shí)發(fā)出，所以天文學(xué)家懷疑他們觀察到了兩種不同的吞噬方式。在《天體物理學(xué)雜志》發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)新研究中，研究人員寫道，他們認(rèn)為這種所謂的“情緒光照”差異，是我們?cè)诤诙词⒀缙陂g觀察兩個(gè)不同時(shí)刻的結(jié)果。

Captured stars are stretched into long strings, as the intense gravity pulls them apart in what it is technically known as a tidal disruption event. The material stretches all the way around the black hole and smacks back into itself. The team, led by Peter Jonker from SRON and Radboud University, found that previous events that emitted visible light were detectable in X-rays after a few years.

被捕獲的恒星被拉伸成長(zhǎng)串，因?yàn)閺?qiáng)烈的重力將它們分開，這在技術(shù)上被稱為潮汐干擾事件。這種物質(zhì)一直圍繞著黑洞延伸，然后彈回黑洞。由來自SRON和Radboud大學(xué)的Peter Jonker領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)，之前發(fā)射可見光的事件在幾年后可以用x射線探測(cè)到。

The team has two possible explanations for the different light emissions. In the first one, the researchers suggest that as the material collides with itself, it emits visible light and afterward, as it gets closer to the black hole, it starts glowing in X-rays. The second suggestion is that both visible light and X-rays are emitted at the same time, but the collision produces a cloud of material that absorbs the X-rays. So only after that cloud disperses do the X-rays become visible.

研究小組對(duì)不同的光輻射有兩種可能的解釋。在第一個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)中，研究人員提出，當(dāng)物質(zhì)與自身發(fā)生碰撞時(shí)，它會(huì)發(fā)出可見光，隨后，當(dāng)它靠近黑洞時(shí)，就會(huì)發(fā)出x射線。第二種說法是，可見光和x射線同時(shí)發(fā)射，但碰撞產(chǎn)生的物質(zhì)云吸收了x射線。所以只有在云層消散后，x射線才會(huì)顯現(xiàn)出來。

This work has some interesting consequences. The study of the X-ray emission from tidal disruption events can provide independent confirmation that black holes really do spin themselves. That’s because there is a connection between the X-rays and the rotation of the black hole.

這項(xiàng)工作產(chǎn)生了一些有趣的結(jié)果。對(duì)潮汐擾動(dòng)事件的x射線輻射的研究可以提供獨(dú)立的證據(jù)，證明黑洞確實(shí)會(huì)自旋。這是因?yàn)閤射線和黑洞的旋轉(zhuǎn)之間存在聯(lián)系。

Another important fact is that a recently launched X-ray observatory, eROSITA, will soon be able to put these hypotheses to the test. In the paper, the team states that up to 990 of these tidal disruption events might be seen every year by this new telescope.

另一個(gè)重要的事實(shí)是，最近發(fā)射的x射線天文臺(tái)eROSITA不久將能夠?qū)@些假說進(jìn)行檢驗(yàn)。在這篇論文中，研究小組稱，通過這臺(tái)新望遠(yuǎn)鏡，每年可能會(huì)觀測(cè)到990次這種潮汐干擾事件。