A study result offers new clues about the nature of the tidal disruption event or TDE. Conducted by a team of scientists, ideas from the research gives way to a new understanding of the ultraviolet spectroscopic evolution of a nearby low-luminosity tidal disruption event or iPTF16fnl in the outer space.
According to Phys.org, the iPTF16fnl was discovered on August 26, 2016, as a transient consistent at the center of the galaxy Mrk 0950. Due to this astronomical find, the international team of astronomers led by Jonathan S. Brown of the Ohio State University in Columbus has decided to initiate a follow-up observational campaign to study the tidal disruption event in detail.
The tidal disruption event occurs when a star passes close enough to a supermassive black hole and it is pulled back by the black hole's tidal forces that cause the disruption process. As such, the tidally disrupted stellar debris rains down on black hole and radiation emerges from the innermost regions that accelerated the debris which in turn indicates tidal disruption event.
These tidal disruption events prove to be the evidence of the supermassive black holes. It also provides an opportunity to learn about the kinematics and ionization structures of the tidally disrupted stellar debris as it is being observed.
Moreover, Chemistry LibreTexts also explains that the shorter wavelength, the higher the energy radiation in the ultraviolet and visible range of magnetic spectrum causes many organic molecules to undergo electronic transitions while the interaction of the infrared light that causes molecules to undergo vibrational transitions. This means that one of its electrons jumps from a lower energy to a higher energy molecular orbital that made the energy from ultraviolet or visible light is absorbed by a molecule that in turn projects the tidal disruption event.
Observations from the tidal disruption events are done using the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope on board the NASA's spacecraft. Likewise, to perform photometric and spectrometric monitoring of the disruption events, researchers also use the ground-based observatories.
"There is a significant evolution in the shape and central wavelength of the line profiles of the tidal disruptive event over the course of our observations. Early times, the lines are broad and redshifted, while the later times, the lines are significantly narrower," Brown and his team wrote in the published study. They also added that the evolution peaks near the wavelengths of their corresponding atomic transitions.
Researchers also found that Ultraviolet spectra of iPTF16fnl closely resembles that of the other tidal disruptive event nearby and nitrogen-rich stars. This also indicates the resemblance of those several other optically discovered tidal disruptive events. Likewise, all the observation from the space and ground-based telescopes allows scientists to draw a conclusion that iPTF16fnl is subluminous and evolves more rapidly than another optical detective tidal disruptive events.
