Eric Coughlin, assistant professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, and team of scientists from MIT and the Space Telescope Science Institute, used detailed modeling to predict the brightening and dimming of AT2018fyk, which is a repeating partial tidal disruption event (TDE). TDEs occur when a star passes too close to a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and is violently ripped apart by the SMBH's immense gravitational field. During a repeating partial TDE, the high-density core of the star survives the gravitational interaction with the SMBH, allowing it to orbit the black hole and be shredded more than once.
The team produced a model that accurately forecast the feeding pattern of a black hole ~ 860 million light-years away from Earth and their results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Their research received attention from several prominent media outlets, including: