In 2015, the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) detected an event, named ASASSN-15lh, that was recorded as the brightest supernova ever—and categorised as a superluminous supernova, the explosion of an extremely ...
Astronomy
Dec 12, 2016
1
677
Supermassive black holes, with their immense gravitational pull, are notoriously good at clearing out their immediate surroundings by eating nearby objects. When a star passes within a certain distance of a black hole, the ...
Astronomy
Sep 15, 2016
3
65
Roughly 90 percent of the biggest black holes in the known universe are dormant, meaning that they are not actively devouring matter and, consequently, not giving off any light or other radiation. But sometimes a star wanders ...
Astronomy
Jun 22, 2016
13
1112
When a star comes too close to a black hole, the intense gravity of the black hole results in tidal forces that can rip the star apart. In these events, called tidal disruptions, some of the stellar debris is flung outward ...
Astronomy
Oct 21, 2015
6
5670
