Chinese Astronomers Uncover Groundbreaking Tidal Disruption Event

Chinese astronomers have discovered a new faint tidal disruption event (TDE) called AT 2023clx, which is the faintest and closest optical TDE ever detected. TDEs occur when a star is torn apart by the tidal forces of a supermassive black hole. The discovery was made in the nearby star-forming galaxy NGC 3799, and follow-up observations confirmed its nature as a faint TDE. The findings suggest that there may be many more faint TDEs waiting to be discovered.