Researchers unveil unique tidal disruption event with unprecedented early optical bump
2024-05-13
(Press-News.org)
A research team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) presented a detailed analysis of a tidal disruption event (TDE) with unique characteristics, providing new insights into the behavior of TDEs and their multiwavelength emissions. The study was published online in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
When a star ventures too close to a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy, it gets torn apart by the black hole's immense tidal forces, resulting in a phenomenon known as a TDE.
The researchers found that the AT2023lli event observed by various ground and space telescopes including the newly constructed Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) jointly operated by the USTC and the Purple Mountain Observatory of CAS exhibited unique features unlike previous TDEs. Traditionally, TDE light curves display a smooth "rapid rise, slow decline" trend. However, AT2023lli deviated from this pattern significantly.
Optical monitoring revealed a strong "bump" in its early light curve, lasting nearly a month and separated by two months from the main peak. This extended and pronounced "bump" was unprecedented in TDE observations. The researchers proposed that the "bump" could be the result of the self-intersection of the stream debris, while the primary peak was likely generated by the reprocessed emission from the accretion process.
Moreover, the researchers observed delayed and intermittent X-ray emissions compared to optical/Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which they attributed to the obscuration of the accretion disk by outflowing material, resulting in the absorption and reprocessing of soft X-rays into optical/UV radiation. The intermittent nature of the X-ray emission was suggested to be due to the presence of an inhomogeneous reprocessing layer around the accretion disk, which could be associated with the obscuring material's patchy distribution.
This study underscores the importance of high-cadence, multiwavelength sampling in understanding the physics of TDEs. The sensitivity of WFST is highlighted in providing high-quality multicolor photometric data during the late evolution of AT2023lli. The unique survey design of WFST's high-cadence deep fields, coupled with the recently launched Einstein Probe, holds promise for discoveries in transient source research including TDEs.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2024-05-13
In a recent study published in Nature Physics, researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with researchers of University of Science and Technology of China, have introduced the concept of the "Topological Kerr Effect" by using the low-temperature magnetic field microscopy system and the magnetic force microscopy imaging system supported by the steady-state high magnetic field experimental facility.
The study holds great promise for advancing our understanding of topological magnetic ...
2024-05-13
In a new study, led by Charles Underwood from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) in Cologne, Germany, scientists established a system to generate clonal sex cells in tomato plants and used them to design the genomes of offspring. The fertilization of a clonal egg from one parent by a clonal sperm from another parent led to plants containing the complete genetic information of both parents. The study is now published in Nature Genetics.
Hybrid seeds, combining two different parent lines with specific favorable traits, are popular in agriculture as they give rise to robust crops with enhanced productivity, and have been utilized by farmers ...
2024-05-13
DURHAM, N.C. – Nature gave ticks, mosquitos and leaches a quick-acting way to keep blood from clotting while they extract their meal from a host.
Now the key to that method has been harnessed by a team of Duke researchers as a potential anti-clotting agent that could be used as an alternative to heparin during angioplasty, dialysis care, surgeries and other procedures.
Publishing in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers describe a synthetic molecule that mimics the effects of compounds in the saliva of blood-sucking critters. Importantly, the new molecule can also ...
2024-05-13
Toronto, ON - A new national study found that transgender preteens, 12 and13 years old, reported 13 hours of daily recreational screen time, which was 4.5 hours more than their cisgender peers. Data were collected from 2019 to 2021, overlapping with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the study was published in Annals of Epidemiology.
“Transgender adolescents are more likely to experience school-based bullying and exclusion from peer groups due to their gender identity, leading them to spend less time in traditional school activities and more time on screens,” says lead author, Jason Nagata, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. ...
2024-05-13
For release: May 13, 2024
Ithaca, NY—The Giant Hummingbird of western South America is not one species but two, according to an international group of researchers. The northern population stays in the high Andes year-round while the southern population migrates from sea level up to 14,000 feet for the nonbreeding months. The two species appear identical. But looks deceive—their genomes and behaviors tell a different story. The paper announcing the find was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“These ...
2024-05-13
In the weeks before and after the 2020 presidential election, researchers ran a number of tests to try to understand how much Facebook and its corporate cousin, Instagram, may be contributing to the nation's political divide.
One of those experiments — led by Matthew Gentzkow and Hunt Allcott, economics professors at Stanford University — centered on more than 35,000 Facebook and Instagram users who were paid to stay off the platforms in the run-up to Election Day. There’s a lot that researchers could glean from the social media hiatus, including whether people’s political attitudes shifted and in what ways. If views changed dramatically, that ...
2024-05-13
Researchers from UNM’s Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) have uncovered the giant hummingbird’s extreme long-distance migration for the first time. Their eight-year study, Extreme elevational migration spurred cryptic speciation in giant hummingbirds published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, led them to another important discovery: The world’s largest hummingbird is a new species.
The team, led by Jessie Williamson, UNM Ph.D., 2022, included the Museum of Southwestern Biology at UNM, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Chile, and Centro de Ornitología ...
2024-05-13
A newly discovered Zika virus-specific synthetic molecule is capable of differentiating Zika-immune patient samples from samples of patients previously infected with the related dengue virus. The technology may lead to the development of better diagnostics and vaccine candidates, scientists announced today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, is the first to apply an innovative “epitope surrogate” technology to Zika. Until now, researchers and clinicians have lacked diagnostic ...
2024-05-13
A way to curb nagging insects has been flying under our radar—an enzyme from fruit fly testes.
The compound could control bugs that carry disease and harm crops by stunting their ability to procreate, Johns Hopkins University researchers found.
“We have a toe in the door to control fruit fly populations with this enzyme,” said Steven Rokita, a professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins who led the research. “It could offer a good way to control fertility of all kinds of biological and agricultural pests, starting with mosquito populations.”
The findings are set to publish ...
2024-05-13
1. A NIMS research team has demonstrated for the first time ever that a simple stack of thermoelectric and magnetic material layers can exhibit a substantially larger transverse thermoelectric effect—energy conversion between electric and heat currents that flow orthogonally to each other within it—than existing magnetic materials capable of exhibiting the anomalous Nernst effect. This mechanism may be used to develop new types of thermoelectric devices useful in energy harvesting and heat flux sensing.
2. Seebeck effect-based ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Researchers unveil unique tidal disruption event with unprecedented early optical bump
