Hungry Enough to Eat a Star?

Have you ever been so hungry you felt like you could eat a horse? How about an entire star? In March, something happened about 3.9 billion light years away that had scientists scratching their heads. X-rays began streaming towards Earth and some satellite images showed evidence of high-energy flares. It turns out that a black hole in a distant galaxy that had previously been asleep just activated and consumed a star. Talk about waking up with an incredible appetite!

Astronomers are still following the high-energy flares that keep appearing after this occurrence. They believe that amounts of gas are slowly depleting and this is what causes the flares. They think the star that got devoured just ended up getting too close to the black hole and was eaten up. Poor star!

{video credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab via here}