Using new data from ESA’s XMM-Newton spaceborne observatory, astronomers have probed closer than ever to a SuperMassive black hole lying deep at the core of a distant active galaxy. The galaxy was observed during four 48 hour long orbits of XMM-Newton around the Earth. The black hole is eating matter so quickly that it verges on the theoretical limit of its eating ability, swallowing the equivalent of nearly fifty Earths per day.