We Are Told Nothing Escapes A Black Hole - But Scientists Caught This Lucky Star Doing Just That The supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy had a chance for a big meal but instead was left hungry. A star passed by the black hole close enough that some of its mass fell into the black holes gravitational grip, but far enough that the star managed to get away still intact with minor damage. A team of astronomers spotted the event in a galaxy about 650 million light years from Earth, which is relatively close by for cosmic distances. In fact, it is the closest event of this kind ever discovered. Although they couldnt see the star directly, the team observed a flare of light that resulted from the black holes measly meal, which was a portion of gas about the size of Jupiter. While thats big compared to Earth, Jupiter is still one thousand times smaller than our sun. When a black hole starts to slurp the gas from a passing star, that gas does not immediately disappear into the black hole. First, it orbits around the black hole, moving increasingly fast as it meanders toward the center. The closer it gets, the faster it moves, the hotter it grows and the brighter it shines, eventually producing what astronomers see as a flare of light. We have a misconception that black holes are these vacuums in space that swallow whole anything that dares too close. But this is rarely the case. So, how did this lucky star escape its black hole fate?
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 07:33:56 +0000
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