Black Hole Tidal Disruption Event

This is a video animation of a tidal disruption event (TDE), an intense flash of radiation caused by a supermassive black hole eating a star. The video begins by zooming into a galaxy located 600 million light-years away. We fly into the galaxy’s starry population. Up ahead is a one million solar mass black hole. The black hole is only slightly visible due to the way it distorts light from background stars, through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. A wayward star is swept up in the black hole’s intense gravitational pull and is stretched like taffy as it falls toward the black hole. There is an incredible burst of radiation. Seen from afar, the TDE momentarily outshines the entire galaxy as a brilliant pinpoint of light.