* Astronomy

Astrophysicists Find Evidence of Black Holes Destruction of Stars

Astrophysicists have found evidence of black holes destroying stars, a long-sought phenomenon that provides a new window into general relativity.  The research, reported in the latest issue of the Astrophysical Journal, also opens up a method to search for the possible existence of a large population of presently undetectable "intermediate mass" black holes which are hypothesised to be precursors to the super-massive black holes at the centers of most large galaxies.
The study was carried out primarily by Glennys Farrar and Sjoert van Velzen at New York University's Centre for Cosmology and Particle Physics, and also included the following researchers: Suvi Gezari of Johns Hopkins University's Department of Physics and Astronomy; Linda Ostman of Spain's Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Nidia Morrell of the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile; Dennis Zaritsky of the University of Arizona; Matthew Smith of South Africa's University of Cape Town; Joseph Gelfand of NYU-Abu Dhabi; and Andrew Drake of Caltech. Van Velzen is currently a doctoral candidate at Radboud University in the Netherlands.
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