{"id":16048,"date":"2025-06-10T08:50:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T12:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=16048"},"modified":"2025-06-10T08:50:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T12:50:52","slug":"nasa-see-rare-event-outside-galaxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/nasa-see-rare-event-outside-galaxy\/16048\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s glowing and dying \u2014 NASA observes a rare cosmic event outside a galaxy’s core"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, in a galaxy far, far away, about 600 million light-years from Earth, NASA scientists observed an object that shone brightly for weeks, until it simply disappeared. What happened was the appearance of a <\/span>blue glow on the outskirts of a galaxy<\/b>. This caught the attention of astronomers; after all, what kind of event was unfolding around the center of a galaxy?<\/span><\/p>\n

The flash outside the galaxy that caught attention<\/h2>\n

To find out what this phenomenon was, NASA scientists first relied on the Zwicky Transient Facility telescope, a tool that detects sudden changes in the sky. However, this was not enough, so they turned to the Hubble Space Telescope, which confirmed the phenomenon with high-resolution images. Going deeper into this flash, it is worth mentioning that it already has an astronomical designation: <\/span>AT2024tvd<\/b>.<\/p>\n

This phenomenon occurred in a peripheral region of a galaxy in the constellation of Hercules and stood out in the sky as an isolated point of ultraviolet blue light, clearly<\/span> far from the galactic nucleus \u2013 about 2,600 parsecs (or 8,476 light-years) away, to be more precise. That is why, right away, scientists noticed that it was not common, but then what caused such intense light in such an unusual place?<\/span><\/p>\n

Normally, this type of event is related to supernovae or stellar collisions, however, this glow came from a star. It, in turn, was being <\/span>torn apart by a supermassive black hole<\/b>. Yes, it is not a pleasant event; on the contrary, it is an extremely violent process, where intense gravity deforms the star until it has been destroyed.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the name of this event?<\/h2>\n

Yes, even though it is not that common, scientists have already mapped this type of phenomenon and called it a <\/span>tidal disruption event (TDE)<\/b>. It usually happens when a star gets too close to a black hole and is torn apart by its gravitational force, releasing an absurd amount of light energy. For comparison, it is as if the universe turned on a warning signal visible millions of light years away.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, what still draws a lot of attention is that all the observed TDEs had been <\/span>happening in the center of galaxies (like this strange glow right in the center of the galaxy)<\/a>,\u00a0because that is where black holes usually are. Until AT2024tvd arrived and decided to change things, becoming the first event of this type detected outside the region. And why did this happen, you must be wondering? Well, astronomers have two hypotheses: galactic mergers and interactions between multiple black holes.<\/span><\/p>\n