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Space

One star being eaten by another will take revenge as a black hole

Astronomers have found one huge star eating another, but the smaller star is predicted to eventually become a black hole and go on to feed off its companion

By Leah Crane

27 April 2023

The smaller, brighter, hotter star (left) is losing mass to its bigger companion (right)

UCL / J. daSilva

A distant star is being eaten by its companion, but it is getting ready to take its revenge. The pair make up the most massive contact binary – two stars that are so close together they are technically touching – ever found.

The pair of stars is called SSN 7, and it is located in a star-forming region called NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy about 200,000 light years away. Matthew Rickard at University …

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