Astronomers See Another Star Torn Apart By a Black Hole

The Bad Astronomer writes "A star in a galaxy 2.7 billion light years away wandered too close to a supermassive black hole and suffered the ultimate fate: it was literally torn apart by the black hole's gravity. The event was seen as a flash of ultraviolet light flaring 350 times brighter than the galaxy itself, slowly fading over time. Astronomers were able to determine that some of the star's material was eaten by the black hole, and some flung off into space. Although rare, this is the second time such a thing has been seen; the other was just last year."

Comments

Why it gotta be a "black" hole?

[PopeRatzo]

I prefer "hole-of-color".

Re:Why it gotta be a "black" hole?

[Anonymous Coward]

The correct term is "African-American" hole

Re:Why it gotta be a "black" hole?

[PopeRatzo]

I dont get it.

Use more Axe body spray.

Re:End of the world

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

It is only a matter of time now before a rogue black hole passes close enough to Sol to destroy all life.

The odds of such an event are... [sunglasses]....Astronomical.

Re:Will black hole devour dark matter, anti-matter

[robot256]

Dark matter responds to gravity, and antimatter should as well. So they'd get pulled in and never seen again.

Which really isn't saying much, since they were never seen before, either.

Re:End of the world

[Anonymous Coward]

This is all clearly Obama's fault. Two stars torn apart in one year? You never saw this during the Bush administration.

Why is Obama crippling our black hole defenses?

I blame Q

[citking]

I think the Q continuum is at war again.