Astronomers have found a black hole that is consuming gas from a nearby star ten times faster than previously thought. The black hole, known as P13, is situated near the galaxy NGC7793, about 12 million light years from Earth, and is ingesting a weight "equivalent to 100 billion billion hot dogs every minute". Dr Roberto Soria of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at Curtin University said that as gas fell towards a black hole it becomes very hot and bright. "Scientists first noticed P13 because it was a lot more luminous than other black holes, but it was initially assumed that it was simply bigger," Soria said. "It was generally believed the maximum speed at which a black hole could swallow gas and produce light was tightly determined by its size. So it made sense to assume that P13 was bigger than the ordinary, less bright black holes we see in our own galaxy, the Milky Way."
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