00:00Imagine watching a star get eaten alive by a black hole.
00:03That's exactly what NASA believes they captured in an incredible new animation,
00:08450 million light-years away.
00:10A rare intermediate-mass black hole may have torn a star to pieces in a spectacular cosmic feast,
00:16using the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory.
00:20Scientists zeroed in on a star cluster orbiting this mysterious black hole.
00:24Right on the edge of a distant galaxy called NGC 6099,
00:28what they saw was jaw-dropping.
00:31A massive star drifted too close and was caught in the black hole's gravity.
00:36The star stretched out like cosmic spaghetti, a process called spaghettification.
00:41As it was slowly pulled apart, then came the flash, a tidal disruption event,
00:47a powerful burst of light and radiation.
00:49As the star was destroyed beyond recognition,
00:52it all happened before the dinosaurs even existed.
00:55But thanks to our technology,
00:57we can now watch this ancient space horror show unfold.
01:01And while some scientists say HLX-1 might be something else entirely,
01:05NASA's on a mission to find more of these rare black holes
01:08before they swallow more stars whole.
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