A Black Hole Nibbles on a Star Every 22 Days, Slowly Consuming it

A star is ripped apart by a black hole. Credit: Mark Garlick

Astronomers working with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have spotted something unusual. The observatory’s X-Ray Telescope (XRT) has captured emissions from a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in a galaxy about 500 million light-years away. The black hole is repeatedly feeding on an unfortunate star that came too close.

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