“Spaghettification” sounds like prep work for a big pasta dinner. But for scientists, it’s something even tastier: the destruction of a star by a black hole. It reveals details about the star, the black hole, and the galaxy they inhabit. It happens when a star passes too close to a black hole — especially a supermassive black hole at the heart of a galaxy. As the star gets close, the black hole’s gravity starts to pull it apart. The destruction is known as a T-D-E — a tidal disruption event. The black hole’s gravity pulls more strongly on the side of the star that’s closest to it, so it rips the star apart in strands — like pieces of spaghetti. The star doesn’t go quietly, though. It produces a huge outburst of energy. And it produces more energy later on. Some of the star’s hot gas forms a disk around the black hole. That produces X-rays. The disruption also creates a cloud of gas and dust, which absorbs the X-rays and emits infrared energy. Powerful magnetic fields also direct some o
