Astronomers have discovered the first "black hole triple" system, consisting of a black hole hungrily feeding on a companion star while being orbited by a more distant, cautious star. 

Black holes form during the violent death of massive stars in supernova explosions, but this surprising discovery could indicate a more gentle black hole birthing process called "direct collapse." That is because if the origin of this black hole had been more violent, it would have supplied a "pre-natal kick" that would have launched the loosely bound distant star out of this triple star system.

The system in question is V404 Cygni, located within the Milky Way and around 8,000 light-years from Earth. This so-called "X-ray binary" of the black hole and its victim star were previously known, and the system has been well-studied. However, a deeper investigation performed by a team led by Kevin Burdge from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) revealed that this binary actually sits at the heart of a triple star system