For the first time, astronomers say they've borne witness to a supermassive black hole consuming a star.
Two papers released Wednesday by the journal Nature describe powerful blasts of radiation whose brightness and behavior can be explained only by a sun-sized star being torn apart by the gravitational forces of a black hole at the center of its galaxy, the authors say.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-black-hole-20110825,0,7532003.story