♪ ON-SCREEN TEXT: Scientists have discovered the most predictable and frequent example of flares from an active galaxy.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: When they saw the first flare, called ASASSN-14ko ...
ON-SCREEN TEXT: they thought it was the explosion of one of the galaxy’s billions of stars.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: But after analyzing years of data from multiple observatories …
ON-SCREEN TEXT: … and seeing the flares appear over and over again …
ON-SCREEN TEXT: ... they now think that it’s a giant star being slowly devoured as it orbits the galaxy’s central black hole.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: The black hole pulls gas from the star each time it passes closest, every 114 days ...
ON-SCREEN TEXT: … and the material falls toward the black hole, eventually striking the disk of gas surrounding it.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: That’s when the bright flares erupt.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: The star loses enough gas each orbit to make three Jupiters.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: Eventually the black hole will consume it entirely.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: Astronomers eagerly await the next flare …
ON-SCREEN TEXT: ... and will continue to study this unusual process – a black hole nibbling away at an unlucky star.
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