Astronomers in Israel and the U.S. have discovered that black holes are more mobile than previously thought and that they can resume activity after being seemingly dormant, Hebrew University announced on Wednesday.
The finding comes from the first observation of a supermassive black hole tearing apart a star far from a galactic center, producing exceptionally bright and rapidly evolving radio signals. The discovery challenges long-held assumptions about where black holes reside and how they behave.
“This is truly extraordinary,” said Dr. Itai Sfaradi of the University of California, Berkeley, the study’s lead author. “Never before have we seen such bright radio emission from a black hole tearing apart a star, away from a galaxy’s center — and evolving this fast. It changes how we think about black holes and their behavior.”
The research, published in the peer-reviewed The Astrophysical Journal Letters, was led by Sfaradi and Prof. Raffaella Margutti of UC Berkeley, with collaborators from institutions around the world, including Prof. Assaf Horesh of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The event, designated “AT 2024tvd,” occurred about 2,600 light-years from the core of its host galaxy.
