That happens to the poor star that accompanies a black hole that travels at high speed through the galaxy, at 145 km / s relative to us. The object is called XTE J1118 + 480 and was discovered by the Rossi X-ray satellite in March 2000 . It is located just above us – relative to the galactic plane – and very close, just 6,000 light-years away.
It is possible that this black hole was "ejected" 7,000 million years ago from one of the many globular star clusters that form a spherical halo around our galaxy and that are supposed to have appeared during the early stages of the formation of the Milky Way. With a mass of about seven times that of the Sun, before beginning its journey the devious black hole 'kidnapped' one of the stars in the cluster.
And as if it were a snack for the long haul, he has been eating it little by little. But that bag of stellar chips is about to run out: the poor star has only the inner layers left, the rest has already been eaten by his abductor.
Now astronomers wonder where there are more of these 'cannibals', who they estimate in the hundreds of thousands.
Photo: IAC
