ESA Science & Technology - Black hole eats a super-Jupiter

Astronomers using ESA's INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton space telescopes, NASA's Swift and the MAXI (Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image) instrument on the International Space Station have made the first detection of a substellar object being disrupted by a black hole. The discovery was made in the 47 million-light-year-distant galaxy, NGC 4845.

The animation depicts the substellar object moving through space and encountering the black hole, whereupon its outer layers are ripped away and spiral towards the black hole. The debris becomes heated and emits a blast of X-ray radiation before fading away once the material is consumed.