The NEW PHYSICS of Black Hole Star Capture | Extreme Tidal Disruption Events

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime If you track the motion of individual stars in the ultra-dense star cluster at the very center of the Milky Way you’ll see that they swing in sharp orbits around some vast but invisible mass—that’s the Sagittarius A* supermassive black hole. These are perilous orbits, and sometimes a star wanders just a little too close to that lurking monster, leading to its utter destruction in the spectacular phenomenon known as a tidal disruption event. We’ve never seen a TDE in the Milky Way, but we’ve seen them in distant galaxies—and we now know how to spot stellar destructions so extreme that they reveal properties of the black hole itself. Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt Caplan, Andy Santarelli & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2024 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By: Big Bang Wojciech Szymski Bryce Fort Peter Barrett Alexander Tamas Morgan Hough Juan Benet Vinnie Falco Mark Rosenthal Supernova Grace Biaelcki Glenn Sugden Ethan Cohen Stephen Wilcox The Tyacke boys Mark Heising Hypernova Richard Pavlicek Dean Galvin Michael Tidwell Robert DeChellis Stephen Spidle Chris Webb Justin Lloyd David Giltinan Kenneth See Gregory Forfa Alex Kern Scott Gorlick Paul Stehr-Green Ben Delo Scott Gray Антон Кочков Robert Ilardi John R. Slavik Donal Botkin Edmund Fokschaner chuck zegar Daniel Muzquiz Gamma Ray Burst Param Saxena John De Witt Kevin Vallejo Nathaniel Bennett Sandhya Devi Michael Oulvey Arko Provo Mukherjee Mike Purvis Christopher Wade Anthony Crossland treborg777 Grace Seraph Stephen Saslow Tomaz Lovsin Anthony Leon Lori Ferris Koen Wilde Nicolas Katsantonis Richard Steenbergen gmmiddleton Joe Pavlovic Chuck Lukaszewski Cole B Combs Andrea Galvagni Jerry Thomas Nikhil Sharma John Anderson Bradley Ulis Craig Falls Kane Holbrook Ross Story Harsh Khandhadia Jammer Matt Q Michael Lev Rad Antonov Terje Vold James Trimmier comboy Jeremy Soller Paul Wood Kent Durham jim bartosh qntum John H. Austin, Jr. Diana S Faraz Khan Almog Cohen Daniel Jennings Jeremy Reed David Johnston Michael Barton Isaac Suttell Bleys Goodson Mark Delagasse Mark Daniel Cohen Shane Calimlim Tybie Fitzhugh Eric Kiebler Craig Stonaha Frederic Simon Tonyface Jim Hudson Alex Gan John Funai Adrien Molyneux Bradley Jenkins Vlad Shipulin Justin Waters Thomas Dougherty Dan Warren Joseph Salomone Julien Dubois