{"id":219450,"date":"2025-08-05T12:09:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/jwst-uncovers-hidden-black-holes-devouring-stars-in-dusty-galaxies"},"modified":"2025-08-05T12:09:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:09:43","slug":"jwst-uncovers-hidden-black-holes-devouring-stars-in-dusty-galaxies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/jwst-uncovers-hidden-black-holes-devouring-stars-in-dusty-galaxies","title":{"rendered":"JWST uncovers hidden black holes devouring stars in dusty galaxies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/jwst-uncovers-hidden-black-holes-devouring-stars-in-dusty-galaxies.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Astronomers at MIT, Columbia University, and elsewhere have used NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to peer through the dust of nearby galaxies and into the aftermath of a black hole\u2019s stellar feast.<\/p>\n<p>In a study appearing today in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers report that for the first time, JWST has observed several tidal disruption events\u2014instances when a galaxy\u2019s central black hole draws in a nearby star and whips up tidal forces that tear the star to shreds, giving off an enormous burst of energy in the process.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists have observed about 100 tidal disruption events (TDEs) since the 1990s, mostly as X-ray or optical light that flashes across relatively dust-free galaxies. But as MIT researchers recently reported, there may be many more star-shredding events in the universe that are \u201chiding\u201d in dustier, gas-veiled galaxies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Astronomers at MIT, Columbia University, and elsewhere have used NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to peer through the dust of nearby galaxies and into the aftermath of a black hole\u2019s stellar feast. In a study appearing today in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers report that for the first time, JWST has observed several tidal [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}