The galactic shredder: Nasa captures huge black hole pulling star to pieces after red giant 'wanders too close'

• Red giant pulled in by enormous gravity of supermassive black hole
• First time a known star has been seen being 'shredded'
• Outer layers of star stripped off first, then the helium-rich core

Supermassive black holes lurk at the centre of almost every galaxy, weighing billions of times more than our Sun - and Nasa has just caught sight of one 'feeding' on a star.

A re giant star that wandered too close to the centre of a galaxy 2.7 billion light years away was pulled in by the enormous gravity of the black hole - and shredded.

It's the first time an observatory has seen a known star ripped apart in this way.

A star that wandered too close to the centre of a galaxy 2.7 billion light years away was pulled in by the enormous gravity of the black hole - and shredded

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2138763/The-galactic-shredder-Nasa-captures-huge-black-hole-pulling-star-pieces-red-giant-wanders-close.html