Eater

The Eater, also known as the Ultimata, is a sentient black hole that arrived in the Sol System in 2023. It is the primary antagonist of the 2000 novel Eater.

Structure
The core of the Eater system is a micro black hole, a meter or two in diameter and massing about as much as Luna. The black hole's ergosphere is about ten meters across.

Outside the black hole is an accretion disk much larger, though far less massive, than the hole itself. The disk consists of superheated, compressed dust and plasma being consumed by the black hole. Two empty "funnels" point away from the black hole's poles, through which the Eater can direct jets of plasma. The accretion disk region also contains the black hole's magnetosphere, where its intelligence resides in the form of waves. Because the Eater's mind is in the magnetosphere rather than the black hole itself, it is not invincible, and could theoretically be killed with a strong enough disruption to its fields.

Diet
The Eater can feed off any kind of matter. It usually feeds on small objects such as asteroids, ionizing them with its jets before eating the resulting plasma.