A star being tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole (artist’s impression). Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
Using a number of telescopes, on ground and in space, astronomers have observed the light from a seldom detected event - a star being ripped apart by a supermassive black hole, in the center of a distant galaxy. A paper about the discovery will be published by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, one of the authors being Anders Jerkstrand, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University.