Why stars that survive close black hole encounters produce dimmer flares

Some stars can make repeated close passes around supermassive black holes, losing part of their material each time while surviving to return again. These encounters produce bursts of light, or flares, that can recur months or even years apart. But astronomers have been puzzled by a pattern seen in some of these systems: each successive flare becomes dimmer. According to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers now think the answer may lie in how fast the star was spinning before its first encounter with the black hole. The research suggests that an unusually rapid initial spin can reproduce the progressively fading flares seen in some systems.A star that survivesWhen a star ventures too close to a supermassive black hole, the difference in the black hole's gravitational pull across the star can become so extreme that it is torn apart.