An X-ray outburst caught by NASA's Swift on Sept. 16, 2012, resulted
from a flood of gas plunging toward a previously unknown black hole. Gas
flowing from a sun-like star collects into a disk around the black
hole. Normally, this gas would steadily spiral inward. But in this
system, named Swift J1745-26, the gas collects for decades before
suddenly surging inward.