New discoveries in black hole behavior and proximity to Earth.
Astronomers have discovered the closest tidal disruption event (TDE) to Earth, where a star is pulled apart by the massive gravitational pull of a black hole. The TDE was spotted in infrared, a different wavelength than most conventional TDE detections, which usually come in X-rays, ultraviolet, and optical light. The black hole was found in the center of the galaxy NGC 7392, which is a blue galaxy, and the TDE only appeared in infrared, instead of in more energetic wavelengths like others of its kind. This finding suggests that astronomers should be searching for TDEs in infrared light too.
