An international study has discovered a star traveling at more than six million km/h through the Milky Way after being flung from the center of our galaxy by a supermassive black hole.

Instead, this nimble satellite will punch hugely above its weight and try to track down one of the most elusive and mysterious substances in the universe: dark matter. This is the term given to the hypothetical invisible matter that is thought to be more abundant than normal matter and has a similar gravitational effect on its surroundings.

The mission is classified as fast (F), which means it is smaller, more focused, and has a quicker turnaround (less than 10 years to launch) than other types of ESA missions. The agency’s previous F-mission, selected in 2019, is called the Comet Interceptor. Already parked at a stable point in the Solar System, this probe is waiting for a comet to show up and fly by it, something that’s due to happen around the time that Arrakhis launches in the early 2030s.

Since dark matter still eludes detection, the mission will target sources of light that are sensitive to it. We expect normal matter — the stuff that actually emits light, such as stars in galaxies — to move primarily under the influence of dark matter, which is more abundant.

Observations from NASA reveal how complex and catastrophic an event it can be when a star gets too close to a black hole, CBS News reported on Wednesday.

Such an event does not occur in a single moment but, according to NASA, can take several months as the black hole’s gravity slowly sucks in the star’s being.

The latest such observation, which took place over a period of more than five months, was watched by multiple telescopes, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported.

NGC 1,566 is a rare bird among galaxies: Gas and dust are still falling into the supermassive black hole at its center, fueling powerful outbursts of radiation that, in shorter wavelengths of light, make the galaxy’s center blaze brighter than all the rest of its stars combined.

Of the thousands of galaxies astronomers have found, cataloged, and studied so far — and the tens of billions in the universe — only about 10 percent have actively-feasting supermassive black holes at their centers. And NGC 1,566 is the second-brightest of these. At 40 million light years from Earth, it’s also one of the closest, making it a prime target for astronomers.

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera captured a near-infrared view of NGC 1,566 back in 2014, which revealed long, swirling arms ablaze with stars and laced with dark strands of interstellar dust. Even in visible and near-infrared light, the galaxy’s core is bright.