Black Holes trigger nuke explosion in stars to destroy them from within

Stars that get too close to black holes not only risk being torn apart by the black holes tremendous gravity, but the process also triggers a nuclear explosion that rends them apart from within, according to a new study by a team of two French astronomers.

London, July 19 : Stars that get too close to black holes not only risk being torn apart by the black holes' tremendous gravity, but the process also triggers a nuclear explosion that rends them apart from within, according to a new study by a team of two French astronomers.

Scientists have for long known that supermassive black holes weighing millions or billions of Suns tears apart stars that come too close for comfort. The black hole's gravity pulls harder on the nearest part of the star, an imbalance that pulls the star apart over a period of minutes or hours, once it gets close enough.

Now, Matthieu Brassart and Jean-Pierre Luminet of the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon, France, have through computer simulations of the final moments of such an unfortunate sta,r found that this uneven pulling can also trigger a nuclear explosion powerful enough to destroy the star from within.

When the star gets close enough, the uneven forces flatten it into a pancake shape. Some previous studies have suggested this flattening would increase the density and temperature inside the star enough to trigger intense nuclear reactions that would tear it apart.

But other studies have suggested that the picture would be complicated by shock waves generated during the flattening process and that no nuclear explosion should occur.

The new simulations investigated the effects of shock waves in detail, and found that even when their effects are included, the conditions favour a nuclear explosion.

"There will be an explosion of the star - it will be completely destroyed. Although the explosion would obliterate the star, it would save some of the star's matter from being devoured by the black hole," said Brassart.

"The explosion will be powerful enough to hurl much of the star's matter out of the black hole's reach," New Scientist quoted him as saying.

ANI