Author: Daniel Price, Professor of Astrophysics, Monash University

Giant black holes in the centres of galaxies like our own Milky Way are known to occasionally munch on nearby stars. This leads to a dramatic and complex process as the star plunging towards the supermassive black hole is spaghettified and torn to shreds. The resulting fireworks are known as a tidal disruption event. In a new study published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, we have produced the most detailed simulations to date of how this process evolves over the span of a year. A black hole tearing apart a sun American astronomer Jack G. Hills and British astronomer…