Astronomers have seen a star sucking the life out of its companion star.
An international team of astronomy researchers used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope to watch a star in the system dubbed HR 6819 strip its companion star of its outer layers.
Astronomers had thought that the system was made up of a star and a black hole, with the first peacefully circling the latter every 40 days.
Astronomers made a big deal out of the announcement, claiming that the black hole was the closest one of its kind to Earth.
There was something off about the theory.
The scenarios we were looking for were clear, very different and easily distinguishable with the right instrument, according to team lead Thomas Rivinius.
We agreed that there were two sources of light in the system, so the question was whether they were close or far apart.
The results spoke for themselves. One of the VLT's instruments confirmed that there was no bright companion in a wider path, while another was able to resolve two bright sources separated by only one-third of the distance.
The data proved to be the final piece of the puzzle and allowed us to conclude that HR 6819 is a system with no black hole.
The reasoning is quite gruesome.
The best interpretation so far is that we caught this system in a moment after one of the stars sucked the atmosphere off its companion star.
One of the stars stripped its companion of its material.
The study could lead to more understanding of how this phenomenon works.
The HR 6819 system presents a perfect candidate to study how this vampirism affects the evolution, as it is so short.
The system was found to contain no black hole.
Scientists have discovered that black holes are creating stars instead of collapsing.
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