Scientists have detected emanating from the nucleus of a galaxy relatively close to our Milky Way flashes of X-rays gradually increasing in frequency that seem to be coming from a white dwarf - a highly compact stellar ember - with a death wish.

Supermassive black holes are not picky eaters. They placidly sit at the center of galaxies, but if material gets too close, they’ll voraciously gorge on it. Stars have been disrupted and eaten too when they got too close.