A black hole devouring a giant star gives clues to a cosmic mystery

Astronomers have caught a supermassive black hole eating a giant star in the biggest and brightest example of this powerful event ever seen. It could be the missing link that helps us understand mysteriously bright cosmic objects in the centres of some active galaxies.

When a black hole gobbles up a star, it doesn’t happen in one titanic gulp – instead, the star is torn apart in a violent process called a tidal disruption event (TDE). These are some of the brightest events in the sky. Edo Berger…