Home > Cosmic Craziness > Super-Massive Black Hole Devours a Star and Scientists Watch It For The First Fime

Super-Massive Black Hole Devours a Star and Scientists Watch It For The First Fime

08/26/2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

By Gareth Finighan and Claire Bates – “A stunning cosmic jet from a super-massive black hole which shredded then swallowed a star has been observed by astronomers for the first time.

The extremely rare phenomenon caused by stellar debris being consumed by the hole has never been observed before.

Known as ‘relativistic jets’, they can reach hundreds of thousands of light years in length.

Most galaxies have super-massive black holes – regions of space that suck in everything nearby with their strong gravitation pull – at their core, with masses of millions or even billions of suns.

Scientists were first alerted to the phenomenon in March after Nasa’s Swift telescope detected several bursts of X-rays from a quiet patch of sky.” Read more.

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