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[Music throughout] Astronomers spotted a black hole

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repeatedly munching on a Sun-like star

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thanks to NASA's Swift satellite.

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When a star gets too close
to a black hole, gravitational forces

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cause it to bulge and break apart
into a stream of gas.

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This is a tidal disruption event.

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In some cases,

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scientists see what they call
repeating tidal disruptions.

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That's what's happening here
with an outburst called Swift J0230.

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The Sun-like star orbits a monster
black hole.

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Every few weeks, the star gets so close

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that the black hole pulls off
about three Earth masses of material.

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But the star survives.

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Astronomers saw it in a distant galaxy

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Thanks to a new way to analyze data
from Swift's X-ray telescope.

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They developed a new way
of scanning the instrument's observations

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so that they can quickly identify
and study events like these.

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After nearly

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two decades in space,
Swift is still learning new tricks

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and teaching us new things
about our cosmos.

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NASA