Chandra Sees Black Hole Rip Star Apart

beeplet writes "Nasa just sent out this press release titled about an exciting Chandra observation. It states: "Thanks to two orbiting X-ray observatories, astronomers have the first strong evidence of a supermassive black hole ripping apart a star and consuming a portion of it. The event, captured by NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray Observatories, had long been predicted by theory, but never confirmed." There is more information on the Chandra home page, including the x-ray and optical observations that were involved in the discovery." Note that the star-ripping pictured on the front page is labeled an illustration, rather than an recorded image.

Comments

But...

[Loki_1929]

We don't need these old, damn-near useless satellites.

Re:We found a WMD!

[revscat]

Didn't you get the memo? WMD is so last year. The new hotness is reaching out to social conservatives. You know, opposing gay marriages, increasing funding for anti-porn initiatives, screaming about Janet Jackson's left boob, etc., etc.

Re:/dev/null

[egomaniac]

i thought black holes were not proven to exist, or am i living in the past?

There is a tremendous amount of evidence favoring the existence of black holes. Whether or not you personally consider this evidence "proof" is up to you. Some people accepted the theory of evolution as soon as Darwin proposed it, while others still don't, despite the unbelievable preponderance of evidence and complete lack of scientific alternatives. In the end, all you have is the evidence, and what you make of it is up to you.

For what it's worth, virtually every astrophysicist considers the existence of black holes to be a simple fact at this point. As they know a hell of a lot more about the subject than I do, I tend to simply accept their beliefs on such matters. This in no way means that they can't be wrong, but they're much more likely to have things figured out than I am.