Even supermassive black holes can't just pull stars into themselves, but being in the center of the galaxy, they are surrounded by tens of billions of stars, and once in a while one of them will accidentally pass too close to the black hole and be torn apart by its gravity, then fall...
black hole physicsgalaxies: activeX-rays: individual (NGC 6814We present an X-ray spectral and temporal analysis of the variable active galaxy NGC 6814, observed with Suzaku during 2011 November. Remarkably, the X-ray spectrum shows no evidence for the soft excess commonly observed amongst other...
Below, a multispectral false-color image of NGC 4258 shows "anomalous" spiral arms with no counterpart in the visible spectrum, thought to be due to material being pulled into a black hole at the center of the galaxy, and subsequent emission of material at very high velocity. X-rays are ...