Black Holes Devour Thousands of Stars To Fuel Growth

These four galaxies are part of a large survey of more than 100 galaxies conducted by Chandra that looked for evidence of growing black holes. A new study uncovered evidence that stellar-mass black holes in these dense environments are ripping apart multiple stars, and then using their debris to fuel their growth. The Chandra results provide one pathway for the creation of “intermediate mass black holes,” a class that are bigger than the stellar-mass variety but smaller than supermassive black holes. For each of these galaxies, Chandra data are shown with optical images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Washington State Univ./V. Baldassare et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI

In some of the most crowded parts of the universe, black holes may be ripping apart thousands of stars and using their remains to pack on weight. This discovery, made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, could help resolve key questions about an elusive class of black holes.

While astronomers have previously discovered many examples of black holes tearing stars apart, little evidence has been found for destruction on such an immense scale. This type of stellar destruction may explain how mid-sized black holes are formed by the rapid expansion of a much smaller black hole.

Astronomers have conducted extensive research on two types of black holes. Smaller black holes, known as “stellar-mass black holes,” typically weigh 5 to 30 times the mass of the Sun. On the other end of the spectrum are supermassive black holes, which can weigh millions or even billions of solar masses and can be found in the center of most large galaxies. In recent years, there has also been evidence that an in-between class of black holes known as “intermediate-mass” black holes exists.

NGC 1385 Composite. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Washington State Univ./V. Baldassare et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI

The most recent study, which used Chandra data of dense star clusters in the centers of 108 galaxies, gives evidence for where and how these mid-sized black holes might emerge and expand.

“When stars are so close together like they are in these extremely dense clusters, it provides a viable breeding ground for intermediate-mass black holes,” said Vivienne Baldassare of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, who led the study. “And it seems that the denser the star cluster, the more likely it is to contain a growing black hole.”

NGC 1566 Composite. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Washington State Univ./V. Baldassare et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI

Theoretical work by the team implies that if the density of stars in a cluster — the number packed into a given volume — is above a threshold value, a stellar-mass black hole at the center of the cluster will undergo rapid growth as it pulls in, shreds, and ingests the abundant stars in close proximity.

Of the clusters in the new Chandra study, the ones with density above this threshold were about twice as likely to contain a growing black hole as the ones below the density threshold. The density threshold depends also on how quickly the stars in the clusters are moving.

NGC 3344 Composite. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Washington State Univ./V. Baldassare et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI

“This is one of the most spectacular examples we’ve seen of the insatiable nature of black holes, because thousands or tens of thousands of stars can be consumed during their growth,” said Nicholas C. Stone, a co-author from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “The runaway growth only begins slowing down once the supply of stars starts to run dry.”

Other ways scientists have considered massive black holes at the centers of galaxies could form include the collapse of a gigantic cloud of gas and dust or the collapse of over-sized stars directly into a medium-sized black hole. Both of these ideas require conditions that scientists think only existed in the first few hundred million years after the big bang.

NGC 6503 Composite. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Washington State Univ./V. Baldassare et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI

The process suggested by the latest Chandra study can occur at any time in the universe’s history, implying that intermediate-mass black holes can form billions of years after the big bang, right up to the present day.

The growth of black holes in dense star clusters might also explain the detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) of some black holes with masses between about 50 and 100 times that of the Sun. Such black holes are not predicted by most models of the collapse of massive stars.

“Our work doesn’t prove that runaway black hole growth occurs in star clusters,” said Adi Foord, a co-author from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California “But with additional X-ray observations and extra theoretical modeling, we could make an even stronger case.”

A paper describing these results was accepted and appears in The Astrophysical Journal.

For more on this study, see Black Holes Destroy Thousands of Stars To Fuel Growth.

Reference: “Massive black hole formation in dense stellar environments: Enhanced X-ray detection rates in high velocity dispersion nuclear star clusters” by Vivienne F. Baldassare, Nicholas C. Stone, Adi Foord, Elena Gallo and Jeremiah P. Ostriker, 14 April 2022, The Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac5f51
arXiv:2203.02517

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.