Scientists from the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) and Radboud University (The Netherlands) have discovered a strange spiral-shaped star which they describe as spaghetti rolled up on a fork.
In the publication of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the authors explain that this giant star had a normal circular shape. But it spins too close to monster black holes (which are extremely large and ferocious supermassive black holes), leading to “tidal disturbance.” Then the black hole’s gravitational pull will pull hard on one side of the star, then tear it apart and start absorbing matter. The star tried to resist, so the black hole pulled it like a loop of wool: turning stellar matter into long fibers and swallowing slowly.
According to Sci-tech Daily, this “stellar fiber” revolves around the black hole at extremely high speeds, emitting intense heat, X-rays and gamma rays. The authors initially assumed it was simply an accretion disk of the black hole, but then found that the fibers of the material orbiting the black hole were very narrow. They determined it must be a bad star.
Speaking on space, Dr Giacomo Cannizzaro of SRON said this strange phenomenon was discovered around a supermassive black hole far away, outside the galaxy, perhaps as large as billions of Suns. They have yet to pinpoint the exact location of this terrible event.
The discovery opens a new “window” to learn more about the black hole and how celestial objects will be affected when they approach the “monster.” In the Earth galaxy, there is also a monster-centric black hole, but luckily it “hibernates” indefinitely.
