Cosmic tango in outer space.

• Position: Solar System - Brief Article

Gamma-ray bursts and powerful explosions occurring in distant parts of the universe may be the energetic offspring of a cosmic dance between black holes and their dance-partner stars, claim scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and Israel's Tel Aviv University. They show that the bursts are only a small portion of the total energy released during this cosmic tango.

As a black hole and its partner--really the remnants of a star that has become a donut-like ring (or torus) spinning around the black hole--rotate faster and faster, the black hole eventually draws its partner in so close that the star is destroyed, and the black hole gasps for its own final breath. During this...