Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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If you track the motion of individual stars in the ultra-dense star cluster at the very center of the Milky Way you’ll see that they swing in sharp orbits around some vast but invisible mass—that’s the Sagittarius A* supermassive black hole. These are perilous orbits, and sometimes a star wanders just a little too close to that lurking monster, leading to its utter destruction in the spectacular phenomenon known as a tidal disruption event. We’ve never seen a TDE in the Milky Way, but we’ve seen them in distant galaxies—and we now know how to spot stellar destructions so extreme that they reveal properties of the black hole itself.
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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt Caplan, Andy Santarelli & Matt O'Dowd
Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell
Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.
This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2024 PBS. All rights reserved.
End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka
Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By:
Big Bang
Wojciech Szymski
Bryce Fort
Peter Barrett
Alexander Tamas
Morgan Hough
Juan Benet
Vinnie Falco
Mark Rosenthal
Supernova
Grace Biaelcki
Glenn Sugden
Ethan Cohen
Stephen Wilcox
The Tyacke boys
Mark Heising
Hypernova
Richard Pavlicek
Dean Galvin
Michael Tidwell
Robert DeChellis
Stephen Spidle
Chris Webb
Justin Lloyd
David Giltinan
Kenneth See
Gregory Forfa
Alex Kern
Scott Gorlick
Paul Stehr-Green
Ben Delo
Scott Gray
Антон Кочков
Robert Ilardi
John R. Slavik
Donal Botkin
Edmund Fokschaner
chuck zegar
Daniel Muzquiz
Gamma Ray Burst
Param Saxena
John De Witt
Kevin Vallejo
Nathaniel Bennett
Sandhya Devi
Michael Oulvey
Arko Provo Mukherjee
Mike Purvis
Christopher Wade
Anthony Crossland
treborg777
Grace Seraph
Stephen Saslow
Tomaz Lovsin
Anthony Leon
Lori Ferris
Koen Wilde
Nicolas Katsantonis
Richard Steenbergen
gmmiddleton
Joe Pavlovic
Chuck Lukaszewski
Cole B Combs
Andrea Galvagni
Jerry Thomas
Nikhil Sharma
John Anderson
Bradley Ulis
Craig Falls
Kane Holbrook
Ross Story
Harsh Khandhadia
Jammer
Matt Q
Michael Lev
Rad Antonov
Terje Vold
James Trimmier
comboy
Jeremy Soller
Paul Wood
Kent Durham
jim bartosh
qntum
John H. Austin, Jr.
Diana S
Faraz Khan
Almog Cohen
Daniel Jennings
Jeremy Reed
David Johnston
Michael Barton
Isaac Suttell
Bleys Goodson
Mark Delagasse
Mark Daniel Cohen
Shane Calimlim
Tybie Fitzhugh
Eric Kiebler
Craig Stonaha
Frederic Simon
Tonyface
Jim Hudson
Alex Gan
John Funai
Adrien Molyneux
Bradley Jenkins
Vlad Shipulin
Justin Waters
Thomas Dougherty
Dan Warren
Joseph Salomone
Julien Dubois
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE
Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord!
patreon.com/pbsspacetime
If you track the motion of individual stars in the ultra-dense star cluster at the very center of the Milky Way you’ll see that they swing in sharp orbits around some vast but invisible mass—that’s the Sagittarius A* supermassive black hole. These are perilous orbits, and sometimes a star wanders just a little too close to that lurking monster, leading to its utter destruction in the spectacular phenomenon known as a tidal disruption event. We’ve never seen a TDE in the Milky Way, but we’ve seen them in distant galaxies—and we now know how to spot stellar destructions so extreme that they reveal properties of the black hole itself.
Check out the Space Time Merch Store
pbsspacetime.com/shop
Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements!
https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime
Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: search.pbsspacetime.com
Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt Caplan, Andy Santarelli & Matt O'Dowd
Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell
Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.
This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2024 PBS. All rights reserved.
End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka
Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By:
Big Bang
Wojciech Szymski
Bryce Fort
Peter Barrett
Alexander Tamas
Morgan Hough
Juan Benet
Vinnie Falco
Mark Rosenthal
Supernova
Grace Biaelcki
Glenn Sugden
Ethan Cohen
Stephen Wilcox
The Tyacke boys
Mark Heising
Hypernova
Richard Pavlicek
Dean Galvin
Michael Tidwell
Robert DeChellis
Stephen Spidle
Chris Webb
Justin Lloyd
David Giltinan
Kenneth See
Gregory Forfa
Alex Kern
Scott Gorlick
Paul Stehr-Green
Ben Delo
Scott Gray
Антон Кочков
Robert Ilardi
John R. Slavik
Donal Botkin
Edmund Fokschaner
chuck zegar
Daniel Muzquiz
Gamma Ray Burst
Param Saxena
John De Witt
Kevin Vallejo
Nathaniel Bennett
Sandhya Devi
Michael Oulvey
Arko Provo Mukherjee
Mike Purvis
Christopher Wade
Anthony Crossland
treborg777
Grace Seraph
Stephen Saslow
Tomaz Lovsin
Anthony Leon
Lori Ferris
Koen Wilde
Nicolas Katsantonis
Richard Steenbergen
gmmiddleton
Joe Pavlovic
Chuck Lukaszewski
Cole B Combs
Andrea Galvagni
Jerry Thomas
Nikhil Sharma
John Anderson
Bradley Ulis
Craig Falls
Kane Holbrook
Ross Story
Harsh Khandhadia
Jammer
Matt Q
Michael Lev
Rad Antonov
Terje Vold
James Trimmier
comboy
Jeremy Soller
Paul Wood
Kent Durham
jim bartosh
qntum
John H. Austin, Jr.
Diana S
Faraz Khan
Almog Cohen
Daniel Jennings
Jeremy Reed
David Johnston
Michael Barton
Isaac Suttell
Bleys Goodson
Mark Delagasse
Mark Daniel Cohen
Shane Calimlim
Tybie Fitzhugh
Eric Kiebler
Craig Stonaha
Frederic Simon
Tonyface
Jim Hudson
Alex Gan
John Funai
Adrien Molyneux
Bradley Jenkins
Vlad Shipulin
Justin Waters
Thomas Dougherty
Dan Warren
Joseph Salomone
Julien Dubois
