Credit: NASA/CXC/Univ of Michigan/J. Miller et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

This artist's impression shows the aftermath of a supermassive black hole having destroyed a star. Tidal forces from the black hole ripped the star apart when it approached too close, and some of the star's gas (red) is orbiting around and falling into the black hole. A portion of the gas is driven away in a wind (blue). Two X-ray telescopes have probed the elements contained in this wind and concluded that the star was likely about three times as massive as the Sun before it met its demise.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2023/tde/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html