Super-massive Black Hole Detected Devouring a Star by NASA’s Swift Observation Satellite

In a galaxy nearly 4 billion light years away an extremely massive black hole is currently at work ripping apart and consuming a star much like our own sun. The event was discovered in late march when a stream if intense X-rays were picked up by NASA’s Swift observation satellite.

The event, in all actuality, has been over for quite some time, as the event actually began not long after the earth and our solar system first formed. Swift picked up the first bursts of radiation from the star which started its journey toward the Earth some 3.9 billion years ago.

Much like a distress signal, the star began streaming energy as it started to feel the intense pull of a black hole which is estimated to be some 8 million solar masses. The intense gravity of such an object literally pulls a star apart.

According to researchers the rapid motion and magnetism of the black hole create dual, oppositely directed “funnels” producing jets of X-rays and Gamma radiation spewing from the spin axis of the black hole at greater than 90 percent the speed of light.

As luck would have it, one of these jets was pointed directly at the Earth and the Swift satellite. The event, labled Swift J1644+57, is located in the constellation Draco and was documented in the Aug. 25 issue of the journal Nature.

For images and related information to the Swift mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/swift