'Cuse Conversations

Black holes are among the most studied, but least understood cosmic phenomena for astrophysicists. These objects derive their name from the fact that nothing, including light, can escape the grasp of their immense gravitational field.  College of Arts and Sciences physicist Eric Coughlin, who researches how stars are consumed by black holes, explains that black holes range in mass, with the smallest—comparable to our sun—forming from stellar evolution. Starting with hydrogen, massive stars burn through fuel in their cores through nuclear fusion. Between fusion stages, the core contracts, releasing gravitational energy that causes the star's outer layers to expand. This process progresses through increasingly heavier elements like helium and carbon until the star produces iron, at which point the fusion process halts. “The star can’t release any more energy through fusion, and all the pressure being generated from that energy release stops,” Coughlin says. “The core starts to collapse under its own self-gravity. That collapse continues until it forms a neutron star, which can ultimately collapse to a black hole.” Coughlin has examined black holes and tidal disruption events, one of the cosmos’ most extreme occurrences where the gravitational field of a supermassive black hole repeatedly tears apart or shreds a gigantic star. His team's groundbreaking research offers a rare glimpse into the feeding habits of a supermassive black hole using a predictive model to forecast when stars will be shredded and torn apart as it is spaghettified. Coughlin stopped by the "'Cuse Conversations" podcast to discuss the different types of black holes, how hungry black holes can shred distant stars and other cool secrets of thecosmos.