October 15, 2008--A black hole absorbs a steady stream of matter from a nearby living star in this artist's depiction of a stunning system spotted by the ESO's Very Large Telescope.

The black hole and star are ten times closer to one another than Mercury is to the sun.

Escaping star matter forms a large disk of gas around the black hole. Colliding matter in this disk is superheated and some, sparked by magnetic fields, forms surging jets.

--Brian Handwerk