Tidal disruption event

Short description: Pulling apart of a star by tidal forces when it gets too close to a supermassive black hole

Simulation of a star being disrupted by a supermassive black hole during a tidal disruption event.[1]

A tidal disruption event (TDE) is a transient astronomical source produced when a star passes so close to a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that it is pulled apart by the black hole's tidal force.[2][3] The star undergoes spaghettification, producing a tidal stream of material that loops around the black hole. Some portion of the stellar material is captured into orbit, forming an accretion disk around the black hole, which emits electromagnetic radiation. In a small fraction of TDEs, a relativistic jet is also produced. As the material in the disk is gradually consumed by the black hole, the TDE fades over several months or years.

TDEs were predicted in the 1970s and first observed in the 1990s. Over a hundred have since been observed, with detections at optical, infrared, radio and X-ray wavelengths. Sometimes a star can survive the encounter with an SMBH, leaving a remnant; those events are termed partial TDEs.[4][5]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Observations
* 2.1 Optical light curves
* 2.2 Physical properties and energetics
* 3 Tidal-disruption radius
* 4 Notable tidal disruption events
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 External links

## History

TDEs were first theorized by Jack G. Hills in 1975.[6] A consequence of a star getting sufficiently close to a SMBH that the tidal forces between the star will overcome the star's self-gravity. In 1988 Martin Rees described how approximately half of the disrupted stellar material will remain bound, eventually accreting onto the black hole and forming a luminous accretion disk.[7]

According to early[when?] studies, tidal disruption events are an inevitable consequence of massive black holes' activity hidden in galaxy nuclei. Later theorists concluded that the resulting explosion or flare of radiation from the accretion of the stellar debris could reveal the presence of a dormant black hole in the center of a normal galaxy.[8]

TDEs were first observed in the early 1990s using the X-ray ROSAT All-Sky Survey.[9]

## Observations

As of May 2024[update], roughly 100 TDEs are known,[10][11][12] and have been discovered through several astronomical methods, such as optical transient surveys including Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF)[12] and the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN).[13] Other TDEs have been discovered in X-rays, using the ROSAT, XMM-Newton, and eROSITA.[14] TDEs have also been discovered in the ultraviolet.[15] The James Webb Space Telescope is capable of detecting the dust heated by TDEs because of its ability to detect infrared light.[16]

### Optical light curves

The light curves of TDEs have an initially sharp rise in brightness, as the disrupted stellar material falls towards the black hole, followed by a more gradual decline lasting months or years. During the declining phase, the luminosity is proportional to t−5/3, where t is time,[17] although some TDEs have been observed to deviate from the typical t−5/3rate.[18] These properties allow TDEs to be distinguished from other transient astronomical sources, such as supernovae. The peak luminosity of TDEs is proportional to the central black hole mass; it can approach or exceed that of their host galaxies, making them some of the brightest sources observed in the Universe.[19]

### Physical properties and energetics

There are two broad classes of TDEs. The majority of TDEs consist of "non-relativistic" events, where the outflows from the TDE are akin to the energetics seen in Type Ib and Ic supernovae.[20]

Approximately 1% of TDEs, however, are relativistic TDEs, where an astrophysical jet is launched from the black hole shortly after the star is destroyed. This jet persists for several years before shutting off.[21] As of 2023[update] only four TDEs with jets have been observed.[22]

## Tidal-disruption radius

See also: Astronomy:Sphere of influence (black hole)

A star gets tidally disrupted when the tidal force exerted by a black hole ftidal≈2GMBHR*R3 exceeds the self-gravity at the surface of the star fsg≈GM*R*2 . The distance below which ftidal>fsg is called the tidal radius and is given approximately by:[23][24]

RT≈R*(2MBHM*)13

This is identical to the Roche limit for disruptions of solid planetary bodies.

To observe a tidal disruption event, a black hole's tidal disruption radius must be greater than its Schwarzschild radius, RS=2GMc2. At a fixed stellar radius and mass, there is therefore a mass for the black hole where both radii become equal and the star would disappear before being torn apart.[25][7] For a solar mass star, this is approximately MBH≈108M⊙.[26]

## Notable tidal disruption events

Hubble Space Telescope optical image of the TDE Swift J1644+57

* Swift J1644+57[27] A relativistic jet that was launched during the disruption of a star 3.8 billion light years away. The jet lasted 1.5 years, at which point it shut off.[28]
* ASASSN-14li[29][30] The first radio detection of a non-relativistic outflow from a TDE, in 2014.
* AT 2018hyz[31] A TDE that was radio quiet until approximately 750 days after the initial TDE event, and has been rising rapidly in radio frequencies since. This has been interpreted as a delayed radio outflow, or an off-axis jet.[32]
* ASASSN-19bt was discovered by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) project, with early-time, detailed observations by the TESS satellite.[13][33]
* AT 2019qiz[34]
* AT 2022cmc[35] is a jetted TDE discovered in 2022 by ZTF.
* AT 2022dbl is hypothesized to be a repetitive TDE, where a star has passed at least twice near a supermassive black hole and survived the first encounter, implying that perhaps at least some “standard” optical TDEs are in fact partial disruptions.[36]
* ASASSN-20hx, located near the nucleus of galaxy NGC 6297, was discovered in July 2020 and noted that the observation represented one of the "very few tidal disruption events with hard powerlaw X-ray spectra".[37][38]
* AT 2024tvd - the first TDE that doesn't seem to be located at the center of a galaxy, but rather 2600 light years from a larger supermassive black hole at the center of the host galaxy.[39]

## See also

* Gamma-ray burst
* Super soft X-ray source
* RX J1242-11

## References

1. ↑ Price, Daniel J.; Liptai, David; Mandel, Ilya; Shepherd, Joanna; Lodato, Giuseppe; Levin, Yuri (2024). "Eddington Envelopes: The Fate of Stars on Parabolic Orbits Tidally Disrupted by Supermassive Black Holes". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 971 (2): L46. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ad6862. ISSN 2041-8205. Bibcode: 2024ApJ...971L..46P.
2. ↑ "Astronomers See a Massive Black Hole Tear a Star Apart". Universe today. 28 January 2015. http://www.universetoday.com/118555/astronomers-see-a-massive-black-hole-tear-a-star-apart/.
3. ↑ "Tidal Disruption of a Star By a Massive Black Hole". http://www.astro.umd.edu/~tamarab/Site/Research/97187CB4-2B6A-40B8-9940-9EE36CABC885.html.
4. ↑ Guillochon, James; Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico (10 April 2013). "Hydrodynamical Simulations to Determine the Feeding Rate of Black Holes by the Tidal Disruption of Stars: The Importance of the Impact Parameter and Stellar Structure". The Astrophysical Journal 767 (1): 25. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/767/1/25. ISSN 0004-637X. Bibcode: 2013ApJ...767...25G. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/767/1/25.
5. ↑ Ryu, Taeho; Krolik, Julian; Piran, Tsvi; Noble, Scott C. (1 December 2020). "Tidal Disruptions of Main-sequence Stars. III. Stellar Mass Dependence of the Character of Partial Disruptions". The Astrophysical Journal 904 (2): 100. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abb3ce. ISSN 0004-637X. Bibcode: 2020ApJ...904..100R.
6. ↑ Hills, J. G. (March 1975). "Possible power source of Seyfert galaxies and QSOs" (in en). Nature 254 (5498): 295–298. doi:10.1038/254295a0. ISSN 1476-4687. Bibcode: 1975Natur.254..295H. https://www.nature.com/articles/254295a0.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Rees, Martin J. (June 1988). "Tidal disruption of stars by black holes of 106–108 solar masses in nearby galaxies" (in en). Nature 333 (6173): 523–528. doi:10.1038/333523a0. ISSN 0028-0836. Bibcode: 1988Natur.333..523R.
8. ↑ Gezari, Suvi (11 June 2013). "Tidal Disruption Events". Brazilian Journal of Physics 43 (5–6): 351–355. doi:10.1007/s13538-013-0136-z. Bibcode: 2013BrJPh..43..351G.
9. ↑ Komossa, Stefanie; Halpern, Jules; Schartel, Norbert; Hasinger, Günther; Santos-Lleo, Maria; Predehl, Peter (20 February 2004). "A Huge Drop in the X-Ray Luminosity of the Nonactive Galaxy RX J1242.6–1119A, and the First Postflare Spectrum: Testing the Tidal Disruption Scenario" (in en). The Astrophysical Journal 603 (1): L17. doi:10.1086/382046. ISSN 0004-637X. Bibcode: 2004ApJ...603L..17K. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/382046.
10. ↑ van Velzen, Sjoert (2011). "Optical Discovery of Probable Stellar Tidal Disruption Flares". The Astrophysical Journal 741 (2): 73. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/741/2/73. Bibcode: 2011ApJ...741...73V. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/741/2/73. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
11. ↑ Mockler, Brenna (2019). "Weighing Black Holes Using Tidal Disruption Events". The Astrophysical Journal 872 (2): 151. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab010f. Bibcode: 2019ApJ...872..151M.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Hammerstein, Erica; van Velzen, Sjoert; Gezari, Suvi; Cenko, S. Bradley; Yao, Yuhan; Ward, Charlotte; Frederick, Sara; Villanueva, Natalia et al. (2023). "The Final Season Reimagined: 30 Tidal Disruption Events from the ZTF-I Survey". The Astrophysical Journal 942 (1): 9. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aca283. ISSN 0004-637X. Bibcode: 2023ApJ...942....9H.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Holoien, Thomas W.-S.; Vallely, Patrick J.; Auchettl, Katie; Stanek, K. Z.; Kochanek, Christopher S.; French, K. Decker; Prieto, Jose L.; Shappee, Benjamin J. et al. (2019). "Discovery and Early Evolution of ASASSN-19bt, the First TDE Detected by TESS". The Astrophysical Journal 883 (2): 111. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab3c66. Bibcode: 2019ApJ...883..111H.
14. ↑ Khabibullin, I.; Sazonov, S. (21 October 2014). "Stellar tidal disruption candidates found by cross-correlating the ROSAT Bright Source Catalogue and XMM–Newton observations". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 444 (2): 1041–1053. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu1491. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/444/2/1041/1747104. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
15. ↑ Gezari, S.; Martin, D. C.; Milliard, B.; Basa, S.; Halpern, J. P.; Forster, K.; Friedman, P. G.; Morrissey, P. et al. (10 December 2006). "Ultraviolet Detection of the Tidal Disruption of a Star by a Supermassive Black Hole". The Astrophysical Journal 653 (1): L25–L28. doi:10.1086/509918. Bibcode: 2006ApJ...653L..25G.
16. ↑ url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL58sUvv06I
17. ↑ Gezari, Suvi (1 September 2021). "Tidal Disruption Events". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 59: 21–58. doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-111720-030029. ISSN 0066-4146. Bibcode: 2021ARA&A..59...21G. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021ARA&A..59...21G.
18. ↑ Golightly, E. C. A.; Nixon, C. J.; Coughlin, E. R. (1 September 2019). "On the Diversity of Fallback Rates from Tidal Disruption Events with Accurate Stellar Structure". The Astrophysical Journal 882 (2): L26. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab380d. ISSN 0004-637X. Bibcode: 2019ApJ...882L..26G.
19. ↑ Yao, Yuhan; Ravi, Vikram; Gezari, Suvi; van Velzen, Sjoert; Lu, Wenbin; Schulze, Steve; Somalwar, Jean J.; Kulkarni, S. R. et al. (1 September 2023). "Tidal Disruption Event Demographics with the Zwicky Transient Facility: Volumetric Rates, Luminosity Function, and Implications for the Local Black Hole Mass Function". The Astrophysical Journal 955 (1): L6. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/acf216. ISSN 0004-637X. Bibcode: 2023ApJ...955L...6Y.
20. ↑ Cendes, Y.; Alexander, K. D.; Berger, E.; Eftekhari, T.; Williams, P. K. G.; Chornock, R. (1 October 2021). "Radio Observations of an Ordinary Outflow from the Tidal Disruption Event AT2019dsg". The Astrophysical Journal 919 (2): 127. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac110a. ISSN 0004-637X. Bibcode: 2021ApJ...919..127C.
21. ↑ Eftekhari, T.; Berger, E.; Zauderer, B. A.; Margutti, R.; Alexander, K. D. (20 February 2018). "Radio Monitoring of the Tidal Disruption Event Swift J164449.3+573451. III. Late-time Jet Energetics and a Deviation from Equipartition". The Astrophysical Journal 854 (2): 86. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaa8e0. Bibcode: 2018ApJ...854...86E.
22. ↑ Hensley, Kerry (8 November 2023). "Why Are Jets from Disrupted Stars So Rare?" (in en-US). https://aasnova.org/2023/11/08/why-are-jets-from-disrupted-stars-so-rare/.
23. ↑ Hills, J. G. (March 1975). "Possible power source of Seyfert galaxies and QSOs" (in en). Nature 254 (5498): 295–298. doi:10.1038/254295a0. ISSN 0028-0836. Bibcode: 1975Natur.254..295H. https://www.nature.com/articles/254295a0.
24. ↑ Lacy, J. H.; Townes, C. H.; Hollenbach, D. J. (November 1982). "The nature of the central parsec of the Galaxy" (in en). The Astrophysical Journal 262: 120. doi:10.1086/160402. ISSN 0004-637X. Bibcode: 1982ApJ...262..120L. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/doi/10.1086/160402.
25. ↑ Gezari, Suvi (2014). "The tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes" (in en). Physics Today 67 (5): 37–42. doi:10.1063/PT.3.2382. ISSN 0031-9228. Bibcode: 2014PhT....67e..37G.
26. ↑ Gezari, Suvi (8 September 2021). "Tidal Disruption Events" (in en). Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 59: 21–58. doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-111720-030029. ISSN 0066-4146. Bibcode: 2021ARA&A..59...21G. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-astro-111720-030029.
27. ↑ Bloom, Joshua (2011). "A Possible Relativistic Jetted Outburst from a Massive Black Hole Fed by a Tidally Disrupted Star". Science 333 (6039): 203–206. doi:10.1126/science.1207150. PMID 21680812. Bibcode: 2011Sci...333..203B. https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6572/1/1207150Revisedtext.pdf.
28. ↑ Cendes, Yvette (8 December 2021). "How do black holes swallow stars?". https://www.astronomy.com/science/how-do-black-holes-swallow-stars/.
29. ↑ van Velzen, Sjoert (2016). "A radio jet from the optical and x-ray bright stellar tidal disruption flare ASASSN-14li". Science 351 (6268): 62–65. doi:10.1126/science.aad1182. PMID 26612833. Bibcode: 2016Sci...351...62V.
30. ↑ Jiang, Ning; Dou, Liming; Wang, Tinggui; Yang, Chenwei; Lyu, Jianwei; Zhou, Hongyan (1 September 2016). "The WISE Detection of an Infrared Echo in Tidal Disruption Event ASASSN-14li". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 828 (1): L14. doi:10.3847/2041-8205/828/1/L14. Bibcode: 2016ApJ...828L..14J.
31. ↑ Cendes, Y.; Berger, E.; Alexander, K. D.; Gomez, S.; Hajela, A.; Chornock, R.; Laskar, T.; Margutti, R. et al. (1 October 2022). "A Mildly Relativistic Outflow Launched Two Years after Disruption in Tidal Disruption Event AT2018hyz". The Astrophysical Journal 938 (1): 28. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac88d0. Bibcode: 2022ApJ...938...28C.
32. ↑ Matsumoto, Tatsuya; Piran, Tsvi (2 May 2023). "Generalized equipartition method from an arbitrary viewing angle". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 522 (3): 4565–4576. doi:10.1093/mnras/stad1269.
33. ↑ Garner, Rob (25 September 2019). "TESS Spots Its 1st Star-shredding Black Hole". http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-s-tess-mission-spots-its-1st-star-shredding-black-hole.
34. ↑ Nicholl, M.; Wevers, T.; Oates, S. R.; Alexander, K. D.; Leloudas, G.; Onori, F.; Jerkstrand, A.; Gomez, S. et al. (14 September 2020). "An outflow powers the optical rise of the nearby, fast-evolving tidal disruption event AT2019qiz". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 499 (1): 482–504. doi:10.1093/mnras/staa2824. Bibcode: 2020MNRAS.499..482N.
35. ↑ Andreoni, Igor (2022). "A very luminous jet from the disruption of a star by a massive black hole". Nature 612 (7940): 430–434. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05465-8. PMID 36450988. Bibcode: 2022Natur.612..430A. https://repository.ubn.ru.nl//bitstream/handle/2066/286062/286062pub.pdf.
36. ↑ Makrygianni, Lydia; Arcavi, Iair; Newsome, Megan; Bandopadhyay, Ananya; Coughlin, Eric R.; Linial, Itai; Mockler, Brenna; Quataert, Eliot et al. (1 July 2025). "The Double Tidal Disruption Event AT 2022dbl Implies that at Least Some "Standard" Optical Tidal Disruption Events Are Partial Disruptions". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 987 (1): L20. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ade155. ISSN 2041-8205. Bibcode: 2025ApJ...987L..20M.
37. ↑ Lin, Dacheng (25 July 2020). "ATel #13895: ASASSN-20hx is a Hard Tidal Disruption Event Candidate". The Astronomer's Telegram. http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=13895.
38. ↑ Hinkle, J.T.; Shappee, B. J.; Holoien, T. W.-S.; Auchettl, K.; Stanek, K. Z.; Kochanek, C. S.; Vallely, P.; Bose, S. et al. (24 July 2020). "Atel #13893: Classification of ASASSN-20hx as a Tidal Disruption Event Candidate". The Astronomer's Telegram. http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=13893.
39. ↑ Yao, Yuhan; Chornock, Ryan; Ward, Charlotte; Hammerstein, Erica; Sfaradi, Itai; Margutti, Raffaella; Luke Zoltan Kelley; Lu, Wenbin et al. (2025). "A Massive Black Hole 0.8 KPC from the Host Nucleus Revealed by the Offset Tidal Disruption Event AT2024tvd". The Astrophysical Journal 985 (2): L48. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/add7de. Bibcode: 2025ApJ...985L..48Y.

## External links

* The Open TDE catalog, a catalog of claimed tidal disruption events.

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