ElmerFudd Report This Comment Date: February 18, 2004 11:51PM
The accompanying illustration (top) depicts how such an event may have
occurred. A close encounter with another star put the doomed star (orange
circle) on a path that took it near a supermassive black hole. The enormous
gravity of the giant black hole stretched the star until it was torn apart.
Because of the momentum and energy of the accretion process, only a few percent
of the disrupted star's mass (indicated by the white stream) was swallowed by
the black hole, while the rest of was flung away into the surrounding galaxy.
ha ha man Report This Comment Date: May 11, 2004 02:49AM
ha ha