Contact: Cheryl Gundy
gundy@stsci.edu
410-338-4707
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The Stellar Homicide

Caption: This computer-simulated image shows gas from a tidally shredded star falling into a black hole. Some of the gas also is being ejected at high speeds into space. Astronomers observed the flare in ultraviolet light using NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, and in optical light using the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on Mount Haleakala, Hawaii. The light comes from gas falling into the black hole, and glowing helium from the star's helium-rich gas expelled from the system.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHU/UCSC

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