NASA Detects Black Hole Devouring a Star and Emitting an Ultra-Luminous Flare for the First Time

Researchers from the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center announced the unprecedented detection of a supermassive black hole located far from the center of its host galaxy, an observation made while the black hole was devouring a star torn apart by its immense gravity. This discovery paves the way for a better understanding of elusive rogue black holes. According to ScienceDaily, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory detected an extremely bright flare resulting from what is known as a “tidal disruption event,” a phenomenon that occurs when a star passes too close to a black hole, causing its powerful gravitational pull to tear the star apart and consume its material. The event occurred more than 30,000 light-years from the center of a galaxy located approximately 750 million light-years from Earth. The flare revealed a black hole with a mass roughly one million times that of the Sun, reaching a peak luminosity equivalent to about 10 billion Suns, temporarily outshining the galaxy in which it resides.