Death by Spaghettification

This is probably a rather unpleasant way to die, but it may also be the most spectacular way.

Astronomers have observed for the first time the ripping apart of a star as it got too close to a massive blackhole.

“When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole in the centre of a galaxy, the extreme gravitational pull of the black hole shreds the star into thin streams of material,” explains study author Thomas Wevers, an ESO Fellow in Santiago, Chile, who was at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK, when he conducted the work. As some of the thin strands of stellar material fall into the black hole during this spaghettification process, a bright flare of energy is released, which astronomers can detect.

What is even interesting is that the unfortunate star is about the same size as our sun. So you kinda feel a bit for the poor thing.

But of course, all of these happened quite some time ago. It is probably quiet now in that part of the universe.😁

Zz.