NASA Satellite Captures Black Hole Destroying Star

Earlier this year, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observed for the first time a black hole tear apart a star, newly published research says.

The shredding of the star, described as a “tidal disruption event”, has been described by NASA as the “most detailed look yet at the early moments of one of these star-destroying occurrences.”

“The early TESS data allow us to see light very close to the black hole, much closer than we’ve been able to see before,” said Patrick Vallely, a co-author of a paper on the event, published in the Astrophysical Journal on September 27.

NASA released this animation of the event on September 25. Credit: NASA via Storyful