Astronomers have discovered a monstrous black hole with an appetite and a sweet tooth. The black hole is ripping apart an unfortunate star, stretching it like taffy and shaping the “leftovers” into a stellar donut the size of the solar system before feasting on this cosmic confectionary.
The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN or “Assassin”) first spotted the violent incident, referred to as a tidal disruption event (TDE), via a flash of high-energy radiation. The feast is taking place at the heart of a galaxy 300 million light-years away.
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