An ultraviolet-optical flare from the tidal disruption of a helium-rich stellar core

被引:400
作者
Gezari, S. [1 ]
Chornock, R. [2 ]
Rest, A. [3 ]
Huber, M. E. [4 ]
Forster, K. [5 ]
Berger, E. [2 ]
Challis, P. J. [2 ]
Neill, J. D. [5 ]
Martin, D. C. [5 ]
Heckman, T. [1 ]
Lawrence, A. [6 ]
Norman, C. [1 ]
Narayan, G. [2 ]
Foley, R. J. [2 ]
Marion, G. H. [2 ]
Scolnic, D. [1 ]
Chomiuk, L. [2 ]
Soderberg, A. [2 ]
Smith, K. [7 ]
Kirshner, R. P. [2 ]
Riess, A. G. [1 ]
Smartt, S. J. [7 ]
Stubbs, C. W. [2 ]
Tonry, J. L. [4 ]
Wood-Vasey, W. M. [8 ]
Burgett, W. S. [4 ]
Chambers, K. C. [4 ]
Grav, T. [9 ]
Heasley, J. N. [4 ]
Kaiser, N. [4 ]
Kudritzki, R. -P. [4 ]
Magnier, E. A. [4 ]
Morgan, J. S. [4 ]
Price, P. A. [10 ]
机构
[1] Johns Hopkins Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA
[2] Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[3] Space Telescope Sci Inst, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA
[4] Univ Hawaii, Inst Astron, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA
[5] CALTECH, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA
[6] Univ Edinburgh, Royal Observ, Scottish Univ Phys Alliance, Inst Astron, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, Midlothian, Scotland
[7] Queens Univ Belfast, Sch Math & Phys, Astrophys Res Ctr, Belfast BT7 1NN, Antrim, North Ireland
[8] Univ Pittsburgh, Dept Phys & Astron, Pittsburgh Particle Phys Astrophys & Cosmol Ctr, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA
[9] Planetary Sci Inst, Tucson, AZ 85719 USA
[10] Princeton Univ, Dept Astrophys Sci, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会; 英国科学技术设施理事会;
关键词
MASSIVE BLACK-HOLE; STAR; LUMINOSITY; EVOLUTION; OUTBURST; GALAXIES;
D O I
10.1038/nature10990
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
The flare of radiation from the tidal disruption and accretion of a star can be used as a marker for supermassive black holes that otherwise lie dormant and undetected in the centres of distant galaxies(1). Previous candidate flares(2-6) have had declining light curves in good agreement with expectations, but with poor constraints on the time of disruption and the type of star disrupted, because the rising emission was not observed. Recently, two 'relativistic' candidate tidal disruption events were discovered, each of whose extreme X-ray luminosity and synchrotron radio emission were interpreted as the onset of emission from a relativistic jet(7-10). Here we report a luminous ultraviolet-optical flare from the nuclear region of an inactive galaxy at a redshift of 0.1696. The observed continuum is cooler than expected for a simple accreting debris disk, but the well-sampled rise and decay of the light curve follow the predicted mass accretion rate and can be modelled to determine the time of disruption to an accuracy of two days. The black hole has a mass of about two million solar masses, modulo a factor dependent on the mass and radius of the star disrupted. On the basis of the spectroscopic signature of ionized helium from the unbound debris, we determine that the disrupted star was a helium-rich stellar core.
引用
收藏
页码:217 / 220
页数:4
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