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Taiwan aids in study of black hole devouring star

September 02, 2011
Astronomy data provided by Yuji Urata (left), an assistant professor at National Central University, and his wife Huang Li-jin (right), a researcher at Academia Sinica, helped NASA discover a black hole swallowing a star. (Courtesy of NCU)

Observational data from a team led by Yuji Urata, assistant professor of astronomy at National Central University, helped the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration discover a black hole devouring a star, NCU said Sept. 2.

Urata heads the East Asian Gamma-Ray Burst Follow-up Network (EAFON), which monitors gamma-ray bursts through five telescopes in Taiwan, Hawaii, Japan, mainland China and South Korea.

“EAFON provided the research team detailed observation data of Swift J1644+57’s visible light and infrared light from the ground,” Urata said, explaining that Swift J1644+57 is a sun-like star from a galaxy 3.9 billion light years away. In late March, a NASA satellite detected the release of intense X-ray flares from the star, indicating that the black hole in the galaxy is consuming it.

According to Urata, the project was headed by astronomy professor David Burrows at Pennsylvania State University. It focused on observing the X-rays and gamma-rays from Swift J1644+57, and found that the black hole causing the star’s high-energy flares weighs millions of times the sun’s mass.

“This is the first time the phenomenon of a black hole swallowing a star has been observed,” Urata stressed. “It’s an important milestone in astronomy.”

The study was published in the Aug. 25 issue of the influential journal Nature, the professor added. (THN)

Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw

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