Supermassive black hole caught nibbling away on a star

NASA's Swift observatory has spotted a black hole in a distant galaxy snacking on a Sun-like star.

ANU Astrophysichist and Cosmologist Brad Tucker said when a supermassive black hole feeds on a star, it’s called a tidal disruption event.

“Normally when it eats the start it eats all of it at once, the star gets too close the gravity of that black hole rips apart the star and that gas swirls around in the disc,” he told Sky News Australia.

“In this case what appears to have happened is this star is in a very weird orbit where it gets close but not close enough, so it gets eaten … but only little bits have been eaten at a time.”

[szsenyuk]

Black hole needs a giant bottle of Alka Seltzer.

[cemitchell]

Was our universe once on the other side of a black hole and we are just the left overs that has been spit out?

[davidfly]

If you believe this, I have a bridge to sell you.

[richarda]

Was the telescope looking at Victoria?

[paulreid]

I thought this was a piece about Marcia ... my bad ..

[marciawood]

Reminds me of democrats. They kill real stars.

[alexandrugeorgescu]

it's not unusual at all, lots of bodies have oblong orbits... black holes orbiting around each other, stars, planets, moons, comets, meteorites etc
*it's called The Boomerang Effect*

[PeterParker-gtxl]

It is to be expected to speed up when they get closer and slow down further away for its orbit, it looks more like a "projectile vomiting" than a burp. The simulation showed a glob of supposedly black hole, in reality it "maybe" a hyperboloid or hourglass like, JWST may tell us more in the future.

[Matthew_Paul]

That's true. I am the black hole.

[vividness]

Cool story bro 😎 and creative CGI fakery 🙄😂