eso2018a.jpg

The artist's impression shows a star being consumed by a black hole. The black hole appears red and black and glows with a red light. The star in the foreground is orange in colour and also glows.
This illustration depicts a star (in the foreground) experiencing spaghettification as its sucked in by a supermassive black hole (in the background) during a ‘tidal disruption event’. In a new study, done with the help of ESO’s Very Large Telescope and ESO’s New Technology Telescope, a team of astronomers found that when a black hole devours a star, it can launch a powerful blast of material outwards.
ESO/M. Kornmesser
Licence type
Attribution (CC BY 4.0)