A white dwarf is the extremely dense remnant of a dead star, with an average density up to a million times that of the Sun.
China’s Tianguan satellite, also called the Einstein Probe, has likely recorded an intermediate-mass black hole ripping apart and consuming a white dwarf,Xinhua Newsreported on Thursday.According to the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , it marks the first time such an event has been observed.
During a routine sky survey on July 2, 2025, the satellite spotted an exceptionally bright, rapidly varying X-ray source, named EP250702a.The burst’s brightness, radiation pattern, and spectral features differed sharply from any known cosmic explosion.In a cover article in the latest issue ofScience Bulletin, the NAOC team proposed that the event was likely a tidal disruption of a white dwarf by an intermediate-mass black hole.'This phenomenon closely resembles the rare occurrence of a jetted tidal disruption event, where a black hole tears apart a star,' explained Zhang Wenda, an associate researcher at the NAOC.A white dwarf is the extremely dense remnant of a dead star, with an average density up to a million times that of the Sun.Theories indicate that only intermediate-mass black holes, ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of solar masses, have tidal forces powerful enough to tear apart such a compact object instead of swallowing it whole.This process is expected to generate a short, intense burst of energy, likely with a bright, fast-moving jet, matching the rapid evolution and extreme brightness seen in EP250702a.'The ultra-short timescale, extreme peak luminosity, and the subsequent emergence of a soft X-ray 'afterglow' strongly supported the scenario of a medium-mass black hole ripping apart a white dwarf,' said Jin Chichuan, a researcher at the NAOC.
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