A dust-enshrouded tidal disruption event with a resolved radio jet in a galaxy merger

Abstract

An expanding radio jet from a destroyed star If a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, it gets ripped apart in a tidal disruption event (TDE). Mattila et al. discovered a transient source in the merging galaxy pair Arp 299, which they interpret as a TDE. The optical light is hidden by dust, but the TDE generated copious infrared emission. Radio observations reveal that a relativistic jet was produced as material fell onto the black hole, with the jet expanding over several years. The results elucidate how jets form around supermassive black holes and suggest that many TDEs may be missed by optical surveys. Science , this issue p. 482