While we may wonder about the fault in our stars – the fault of this one particular star was that it ventured close to the supermassive black hole. Most stars in our universe die of natural causes – some by blowing off their outer shells, some by running out of fuel and thus cooling down, and some go out with a bang (in a supernova explosion) – there are few hapless stars living in the inner regions of our galaxy whose death sound nothing short of science fiction, i.e., being shredded into pieces by the supermassive black hole.

The Etymology of Spaghettification

Although astronomers have spotted flares around the black hole for decades and attributed it to Spaghettification – for the first time ever, astronomers and a group of researchers caught the glimpses of the star being spaghettified by the black hole at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research and Radboud University, also in the Netherlands.

The gravitational pull of the black hole is so much harder at one side of the star compared to the other that it shreds the star apart – the tidal forces produced by the black hole stretched the star in the shape of a spaghetti noodle; hence the name Spaghettification.

Research Findings

Researchers spotted a rare light flash from the dying star whose material strands were wrapped around the black hole many times like a ball of yarn. Usually, the absorption lines can only be spotted at the equator of the black hole, but witnessing the absorption lines at one of the poles led the scientists to conclude that they were looking at the material ligaments of the freshly devoured star.

Words of the Wise

“Moreover, the absorption lines are narrow. The Doppler effect does not broaden them like you’d expect when you would be looking at a rotating disk,” lead author Giacomo Cannizzaro, a doctoral student at SRON, said in a statement. This ensured that researchers weren’t looking at another accretion disk. The findings were published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Earthquakes happen from time to time, and there’s not much we can do to stop them. That obviously isn’t reassuring to hear given the impact that they can have on lives and property. However, thanks to a new development for Android smartphones, we can now better track when earthquakes happen and hopefully defend against them.

A Brand New Feature

A recent update to Android phones means that any device running operating system 5.0 or above can detect seismic activity. It does this automatically and then sends the data to Google, allowing people in the area to be notified of a nearby earthquake. It’s able to do this through the smartphone’s accelerometer, a feature that’s built into the product. Initially, this was only used for things like the compass app, but now, it has a whole new purpose.

It Could Save Lives

This new feature has the potential to help a lot of people take action and avoid coming to any harm during an earthquake. If seismic activity is detected nearby, their phone will come up with a notification alerting them to the fact. It will tell them that the earthquake may impact them soon, giving them time to find cover and wait for the disaster to be over. Although Android phones still won’t be able to predict an event like this before it happens, at least they can help spread the word once the tremors begin.

Rolling Out In California

Unfortunately, not everyone will have access to this notification service right away. It’s only people in California who will initially benefit the most from this new feature. Although Android phones all across the world will be collecting information, people in other states and countries will have to wait a little longer to receive such notifications.

Here’s hoping that the next time an earthquake hits California, lives will be saved because of Android’s intervention.