Dying Star

For the first time astronomers have detected the last gasps of a star being torn apart by a previously dormant giant black hole.  The signals, which came from a galaxy 3.9 billion light years away, were x-rays generated by matter heated to millions of degrees and torn apart as material from the star crosses the black hole's event horizon.  Known as quasi-periodic oscillations, they are a characteristic feature of stellar black holes which have about ten times the mass of the Sun.