New calculations show that a black hole slurping down a star may not have generated enough energy to launch a neutrino.

Researchers traced the neutrino back to a supermassive black hole that had just ripped apart and swallowed a star. Known as a tidal disruption event (TDE), AT2019dsg occurred just months earlier — in April 2019 — in the same region of the sky where the neutrino had come from. The monstrously violent event must have been the source of the powerful particle, astronomers said.

But new research casts doubt on that claim.

In a study published this month in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and Northwestern University, present extensive new radio observations and data on AT2019dsg, allowing the team to calculate the energy emitted by the event. The findings show AT2019dsg generated nowhere near the energy needed for the neutrino; in fact, what it spewed out was quite «ordinary,» the team concludes.

Black Holes are Messy Eaters

While it may seem counterintuitive, black holes do not always swallow everything in reach.

Story Source: Materials provided by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.