天文学家发现，一些恒星能够在接近超大质量黑洞时幸存下来，并在多次相遇中产生周期性的光爆发1。研究团队已识别出约10个这样的重复系统，其中4个显示出逐次变暗的耀斑1。
雪城大学博士生Ananya Bandopadhyay与Benjamin Amend和Eric Coughlin合作开展的研究表明，这些逐渐减弱的耀斑可能源于快速自旋的恒星1。这些恒星在首次与黑洞相遇前就已经高速旋转，旋转导致被黑洞剥离的物质以不同速度回流，从而产生越来越弱的光爆发1。研究人员指出，Hills机制可能解释了快速自旋恒星如何被黑洞捕获进入紧密轨道1。这一发现的应用范围可能延伸至银河系中心的黑洞人马座A*周围的恒星系统1。
该研究已发表在《天体物理学杂志》2026年第1007卷第2期1。
Astronomers have identified approximately 10 systems in which stars repeatedly approach supermassive black holes and survive the encounters, each close passage producing a new burst of light.1 Researchers led by doctoral student Ananya Bandopadhyay at Syracuse University, working with collaborators Benjamin Amend and Eric Coughlin, propose that rapidly rotating stars may explain the pattern of successively dimming flares observed in some of these systems.1 According to the study, these stars were already spinning quickly before their first encounter with the black hole, causing the material stripped away during tidal interactions to return at varying speeds and generate increasingly weaker flares.1
The research suggests that the Hills mechanism may account for how rapidly spinning stars become captured into tight orbits around black holes.1 Four of the identified systems show evidence of progressively dimming flares, offering insight into the dynamics of repeated tidal disruption events.1 The findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal in January 2026 (volume 1007, issue 2, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae8f31), indicate that this mechanism could also apply to stars orbiting Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.1
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