Hubble Finds Hungry Black Hole Twisting Captured Star Into Donut Shape

  • Released Thursday, January 12, 2023

Black holes are gatherers, not hunters. They lie in wait until a hapless star wanders by. When the star gets close enough, the black hole's gravitational grasp violently rips it apart and sloppily devours its gasses while belching out intense radiation.

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have recorded a star's final moments in detail as it gets gobbled up by a black hole.

For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.

Music Credit
“Solar Eclipse” by Alexander Ryder Mcnair [ASCAP] and Harry Gregson Williams [BMI] via Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS] and Universal Production Music.

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. However, please credit individual items as indicated above.

Release date

This page was originally published on Thursday, January 12, 2023.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 11:43 AM EDT.


Missions

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