NASA's Hubble Finds that a Black Hole Beam Promotes Stellar Eruptions
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet blasting from a supermassive black hole at the core of galaxy M87 seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called novae, are not caught inside the jet, but are apparently in a dangerous neighborhood nearby. Hubble found twice as many novae going off near the jet as elsewhere in the giant galaxy during the surveyed time period.