The Messy Eating Habits of Black Holes

When an unsuspecting star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole, the star can be ripped apart by the black hole's immense gravity. As the black hole messily feeds on the star, it produces an amazing display of light as bright as ten billion suns for many months. Using new surveys, astronomers are finding these hungry black holes throughout the Universe. Recently, it has been discovered that many years after feeding, these black holes sometimes produce a "heartbeat" of X-ray eruptions that repeat every several hours. Dr. Piro will describe some of the best theories to explain this mystery and what they can teach us about these enigmatic objects.

Dr. Anthony Piro — Staff Scientist, Carnegie Science Observatories

Dr. Piro is a Carnegie Staff Scientist and Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy at USC. His research is focused on theoretical astrophysics with a broad interest in topics involving the Universe in its most extreme states, including black holes, neutron stars, and astrophysical explosions. Dr. Piro led the team of astronomers to first discover the radioactive glow of a neutron star merger, an event that was named Science publication’s 2017 Breakthrough of the Year.