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HLX-1 Illustration

Artist’s concept of the disk of a black hole pulling in a white star like taffy. Against a black field speckled with white and gold stars and galaxies, an intermediate mass black hole tears a star into long, white shreds as it begins to feast on the star.

This sequence of artistic illustrations, from upper left to bottom right, shows how a black hole in the core of a star cluster captures a bypassing star and gravitationally shreds it until there is an explosion, seen in the outskirts of the host galaxy.

  • Release Date
    July 24, 2025
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Hubble, Chandra Spot Rare Type of Black Hole Eating a Star
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Artwork: NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

Two elliptical galaxies at upper right and lower left appear as fuzzy white ovals. At bottom center is a fuzzy purple blob outlined by a white box. White lines angle outward from the corners of the box to a blow-up of the purple blob. At the center is a white dot labeled HLX-1. The main image also has two bright stars with prominent diffraction spikes. The background of space is black, and is speckled with tiny white dots.

NGC 6099 (Hubble + Chandra)

A Hubble Space Telescope image of a pair of galaxies: NGC 6099 (lower left) and NGC 6098 (upper right). The purple blob depicts X-ray emission from a compact star cluster. The X-rays are produced by an intermediate-mass black hole tearing apart a star.

Two elliptical galaxies at upper right and lower left appear as fuzzy white ovals. Two bright stars with prominent diffraction spikes also appear near center of the image. At bottom center is a tiny white dot labeled HLX-1. The background of space is black, and is speckled with tiny white dots.

NGC 6099 (Hubble)

A Hubble Space Telescope image of a pair of galaxies: NGC 6099 (lower left) and NGC 6098 (upper right). The white dot labeled HLX-1 is the visible-light component of the location of a compact star cluster where an intermediate-mass black hole is tearing apart a star.

Two elliptical galaxies at upper right and lower left appear as fuzzy white ovals. At bottom center is a fuzzy purple blob. The main image also has two bright stars with prominent diffraction spikes. The background of space is black, and is speckled with tiny white dots. At the top left, on the first line, in a white font, is the label NGC 6099. On the second line, in a white font, is the label HST WFC3/UVIS. On the third line, in a blue font, is the label F475W. On the fourth line, in an orange font, is the label F814W. On the fifth line, in a purple font, is the label Chandra X-ray. At the bottom left corner is a thin, white, horizontal line about one-sixth the length of the image. This is a scale bar. Above the bar in white is the label 33,000 light-years. Below the line is the label 15 arcsec. At the bottom right corner are two intersecting arrows. The arrow pointing up is labeled N, while the one pointing toward the left is labeled E.

NGC 6099 Compass Image

This compass image shows two elliptical galaxies, NGC 6098 at upper right and NGC 6099 at lower left. The fuzzy purple blob at bottom center shows X-ray emission produced by an intermediate-mass black hole tearing apart a star. 

Artistu2019s concept of the disk of a black hole pulling in a white star like taffy. Against a black field speckled with white and gold stars and galaxies, an intermediate mass black hole tears a star into long, white shreds as it begins to feast on the star.

HLX-1 Animation

This video is an illustration of an intermediate-mass black hole capturing and gravitationally shredding a star. It begins by zooming into a pair of galaxies. The galaxy at lower left, NGC 6099, contain a dense star cluster at center. The video then zooms into the heart of the cl...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 17, 2025
Location
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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