Messy Meal

Streamers of gas from a pulverized star flow away from a supermassive black hole in this computer simulation. Astronomers discovered this system with telescopes on the ground and in space. The star passed close to the supermassive black hole and was ripped apart by the black hole's powerful gravity. Some of the debris fell into the black hole (black dot in the center of the orange cloud at top left), but some forms a cloud around the black hole, while more was ejected from the system, forming a long, glowing tail. [NASA/JPL/JHU/UCSC]