Once every 10,000 years or so, the centre of a galaxy lights up as its supermassive black hole rips apart a passing star. This tidal disruption event happens in a literal flash, as the central black hole pulls in stellar material and blasts out huge amounts of radiation in the process.
Astronomers know of around 100 tidal disruption events (TDE) in distant galaxies, based on the burst of light that arrives at telescopes on Earth and in space. Most of this light comes from X-rays and optical radiation.
Researchers, turning past the conventional X-ray and UV/optical bands, have discovered a new tidal disruption event, shining brightly in infrared. It is one of the first times scientists have directly identified a TDE at infrared wavelengths, says a release.
The new outburst happens to be the closest tidal disruption event observed to date: The flare was found in NGC 7392, a galaxy that is about 137 million light-years from Earth, which corresponds to a region in our cosmic backyard that is one-fourth the size of the next-closest TDE.
