Chandra Release - May 8, 2025

Visual Description: Tidal Disruption Event AT2024tvd

This release features a composite image of the tidal disruption event AT2024tvd and the galaxy in which it is found.

The galaxy is somewhat elliptical in shape and larger from side to side than from top to bottom, as though it has been slightly squished. The galaxy presents itself as a hazy orange glow, observed in optical and ultraviolet light, surrounding a hazy, off-centered circle of blue-colored X-ray light. 

Near the center of the blue circle of X-rays is a small, bright dot in ultraviolet light. This dot is AT2024tvd, the location where a black hole has torn apart a star roughly 2,600 light-years away from the center of the black hole's host galaxy. Most tidal disruptions have been detected at the centers of galaxies where supermassive black holes are usually found. The presence of a tidal disruption this far away from the center of the galaxy indicates the presence of a second large black hole in the region.