Hungry Black Hole Rips Apart And Swallows 'Hapless' Star 600 Million Light-Years Away
In a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie, scientists have captured a hungry black hole that is ripping up and gobbling a star that came in its wake. The tidal disruption event (TDE) took place 600 million light-years away and was caught by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing a spectacular burst of radiation after the black hole was done swallowing the 'hapless' star.
As per NASA, out of around 100 TDE events recorded so far, this is the first time that an offset TDE has been identified. The one million-solar-mass black hole is not exactly in the centre of its host galaxy, where supermassive black holes are typically found consuming the surrounding material.
'AT2024tvd is the first offset TDE captured by optical sky surveys, and it opens up the entire possibility of uncovering this elusive population of wandering black holes with future sky surveys,' lead study author Yuhan Yao of the University of California at Berkeley said.
Notably, a TDE happens when an infalling star is stretched or "spaghettified" by a black hole's immense gravitational tidal forces.
A black hole revealed itself from 600 million light-years away when it ripped apart and swallowed a star. The resulting burst of radiation is the bright dot just off-center captured in this @NASAHubble image. https://t.co/g7mSVRZHd1 pic.twitter.com/7FnDsSmCb2
— NASA (@NASA) May 8, 2025
Supermassive black hole lurking nearby
What makes the finding more astonishing is the fact that it took place only 2,600 light-years from the more massive black hole at the galaxy's centre. That's just one-tenth the distance between our Sun and the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole.
Strangely, the two supermassive black holes co-exist in the same galaxy, but are not gravitationally bound to each other as a binary pair.
"The smaller black hole may eventually spiral into the galaxy's centre to merge with the bigger black hole. But for now, it is too far separated to be gravitationally bound," NASA stated.
As for why the black hole had got off-centre, scientists theorised that the three-body problem might be the reason for its odd geography.
. 'If the black hole went through a triple interaction with two other black holes in the galaxy's core, it can still remain bound to the galaxy, orbiting around the central region,' said Mr Yao.
This is not the first time when a black hole has been spotted consuming a neighbouring or wayward star. In November last year, scientists discovered a black hole, named LID-568, devouring matter at a phenomenal rate -- over 40 times the theoretical limit, called the Eddington limit.
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