Fatal Tango: Star's Dramatic Death Dance with Black Hole

Astronomers have witnessed a remarkable cosmic event where a star met a cataclysmic end in an unusual supernova. This occurred when a massive star locked in a binary system with a black hole exploded after being distorted and stripped of its material by the black hole's immense gravitational pull.

Located 700 million light-years from Earth, the star was at least 10 times the mass of our sun, and its interaction with the black hole offers new insights into how some stars meet their fate. Astrophysicist Alexander Gagliano and colleagues observed that as the star lost mass, it eventually burst in a dramatic explosion.

Harvard University astrophysicist Ashley Villar explained that these observations expand our understanding of stellar death. The findings also highlight the impact of companions in a binary system on a star's life cycle, with implications for more systems where a black hole is involved.