Flows of X-ray gas reveal the disruption of a star by a massive black hole.
Tidal forces close to massive black holes can violently disrupt stars that make a close approach. These extreme events are discovered via bright X-ray and optical/ultraviolet flares in galactic centres. Prior studies based on modelling decaying flux trends have been able to estimate broad properties, such as the mass accretion rate. Here we report the detection of flows of hot, ionized gas in high-resolution X-ray spectra of a nearby tidal disruption event, ASASSN-14li in the galaxy PGC 043234. Variability within the absorption-dominated spectra indicates that the gas is relatively close to the black hole. Narrow linewidths indicate that the gas does not stretch over a large range of radii, giving a low volume filling factor. Modest outflow speeds of a few hundred kilometres per second are observed; these are below the escape speed from the radius set by variability. The gas flow is consistent with a rotating wind from the inner, super-Eddington region of a nascent accretion disk, or with a filament of disrupted stellar gas near to the apocentre of an elliptical orbit. Flows of this sort are predicted by fundamental analytical theory and more recent numerical simulations.
Department of Astronomy, The University of Michigan, 1085 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103, USA.
Jon M
JM
Miller
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Department of Physics and Astronomy, Universiteit Utrecht, PO Box 80000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
Jelle S
JS
Kaastra
Department of Astronomy, The University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
M Coleman
MC
Miller
Department of Astronomy, The University of Michigan, 1085 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103, USA.
Mark T
MT
Reynolds
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
Gregory
G
Brown
Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 02742, USA.|Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MC 661, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
S Bradley
SB
Cenko
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Jeremy J
JJ
Drake
Department of Astronomy, The University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Suvi
S
Gezari
The Institute for Theory and Computation, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
James
J
Guillochon
Department of Astronomy, The University of Michigan, 1085 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103, USA.
Kayhan
K
Gultekin
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, PO Box 870324, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA.
Jimmy
J
Irwin
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
Andrew
A
Levan
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts 02766, USA.
Dipankar
D
Maitra
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, PO Box 870324, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA.
W Peter
WP
Maksym
Department of Astronomy, The University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Richard
R
Mushotzky
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
Paul
P
O'Brien
Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory and Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, 550 West 120th Street, New York, New York 10027, USA.
Frits
F
Paerels
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Jelle
J
de Plaa
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA.
Enrico
E
Ramirez-Ruiz
Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 02742, USA.
Tod
T
Strohmayer
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
Nial
N
Tanvir