Hubble Spots Black Hole Beam Causing Stellar Eruptions - YouTube - NASA Goddard - astrophysics

In a surprise finding,the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered that the jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of M 87,a huge spiral galaxy 54 million light years away,seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory.The stars,are called novae,are not caught inside the jet,but are in a dangerous spot near it.A nova explosion occurs when an aged,swollen normal star spills hydrogen onto a burned out white dwarf companion star.When the white dwarf has collected a big enough layer of hydrogen,it explodes into space.The white dwarf survives to resume the cycle.*Credit:NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,Maryland*Text by NASA Goddard and edited by Andrew Taylor