Massive Black Hole Implicated in Stellar Destruction
Monday, January 4, 2010 - 17:49
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Magellan telescopes suggest that a dense stellar remnant has been ripped apart by a black hole a thousand times as massive as the Sun. If confirmed, this discovery would be a cosmic double play: it would be strong evidence for an intermediate mass black hole, which has been a hotly debated topic, and would mark the first time such a black hole has been caught tearing a star apart.