A black hole devours a star and puts astronomers on edge at the rare event. It's so infrequent that events like this in space are only seen every one million years. Now scientists wonder why it happened?
Space scientists have long known about these dark chambers lurking in space. As rare as these event are, they still don't know what ticks the them off.
In March, NASA's telescopes detected a large flash not seen before in magnitude and duration.
The first thought was it was a from an exploding distant star.
Upon further investigation, researchers learned the mysterious flash was from a sun-like star being engulfed by a black hole.
Yea, it sounds like something from a science fiction flick, but it's not that dramatic; the musical score is missing.
But there was a "death scream," as it's referred to in the world of astronomy.
It simply is an emission of gamma ray bursts that result from the black hole devouring the star. Only this time, instead of lasting mere seconds or minutes, the light display has been going on since March.
It's far, far away (about 4 billion light years), but scientists are confused what set the darn thing off to begin with. The black hole lies in the constellation Draco and is typically a sleeping giant.
However, the (former) star must have ventured too close to the grip of the dark abyss, and -- snap -- just like Venus fly trap!
Just in case you're wondering when NASA or ground level telescopes can expect to see another black hole devouring a star? Try another million years, give or take a few thousand years. But who's counting?
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Image: Wikimedia Commons
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