Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2006-12-04
Astrophys.J.653:L25-L28,2006
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
To appear in Dec. 10, 2006 issue of ApJ Letters
Scientific paper
10.1086/509918
A supermassive black hole in the nucleus of a galaxy will be revealed when a star passes close enough to be torn apart by tidal forces and a flare of radiation is emitted by the stream of stellar debris that plunges into the black hole. Since common active galactic nuclei have accreting black holes that can also produce flares, a convincing demonstration that a stellar tidal disruption has occurred generally begins with a ``normal'' galaxy that has no evidence of prior nuclear activity. Here we report a luminous UV flare from an elliptical galaxy at z = 0.37 in the Groth field of the GALEX Deep Imaging Survey that has no evidence of a Seyfert nucleus from optical spectroscopy and X-ray imaging obtained during the flare. Multiwavelength data collected at the time of the event, and for 2 years following, allow us to constrain, for the first time, the spectral energy distribution of a candidate tidal disruption flare from optical through X-rays. The luminosity and temperature of the radiation and the decay curve of the flare are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions for the tidal disruption of a star, and provide the strongest empirical evidence for a stellar disruption event to date.
Basa Stephane
Forster Karl
Friedman Peter G.
Gezari Suvi
Halpern Jules P.
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