NASA Just Spotted a Wandering Black Hole Devouring a Star
SMRTR summary
Somewhere in the constellation Cetus, 750 million light-years away, a rogue supermassive black hole is wandering through space, devouring stars. It's only the second "orphan" black hole ever detected, torn loose from its galaxy's center, and astronomers found it by watching a star die.
When the black hole consumed that star, the destruction released a flash of light equivalent to 10 billion suns. That brilliant flare, heating stellar debris to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, gave scientists a detectable signature to track.
Research fellow Robert Stein of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center put it plainly: "We were looking for these star-shredding events as a way to find otherwise invisible supermassive black holes wandering away from the galactic cores where they usually reside."
Scientists believe these black holes go rogue when galaxies collide. With the Swift Observatory receiving an orbital boost in coming months, astronomers are hopeful more of these cosmic wanderers won't stay hidden for long.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Nautilus.
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