Whether They're Stellar-Mass or Supermassive, Black Holes Behave Pretty Much the Same Way

Astronomers recently caught a supermassive black hole gulp down a star. It flared in exactly the same way as its smaller cousins do when those black holes have a snack. It just took longer and was a million times brighter. Astronomers have been watching the feeding habits of small, stellar-mass black holes for decades. These …