It was much more rare to hear about black holes "spewing out" material than it is now.
The researchers from Harvard's Center for Astrophysics were shocked to discover that a black hole had ejected matter three years after consuming a star.
A research associate and the lead author of a paper that was recently published in the Astrophysical Journal said that they were completely by surprise.
The Center for Astrophysics observed a black hole that devoured a star that was too close.
Astronomers occasionally witness violent incidents while scanning the night sky, but it wasn't all that shocking.
Three years later, the same team of researchers watched the star's remains get regurgitated and the material traveled at half the speed of light.
The researchers can't account for the three-year lag between the star buffet and the burp that lit up their instruments.
The burp was witnessed by the researchers as they studied the process in which stars are spaghettified by black holes.
The sight of one of these "messy eaters" emitting liquified stars years after the fact must have been amazing.
"As if this black hole has started burping out a bunch of material from the star it ate a long time ago, researchers will now expand their focus to see if this is a more common phenomenon in the universe."
It's not so different from the Earth-bound animal kingdom to which we belong, so it's not really gross.
The scientists spotted something that was moving 7 times the speed of light.
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