Cosmic Slurp-Meg Mickelsen

A black hole is a point in space packed so tightly with matter that the gravitational pull is strong enough to trap light. Because black wholes gobble up even light, they are completely invisible. The only way to detect a black hole is to observe whatever interaction it may have with the gases and stars surrounding it.
In the deepest depths of some distant galaxies, a central supermassive black hole slumbers. As time passes a star may wonder just barely too close to the event horizon of these black holes, and then, without warning, the star will be furiously ripped apart by the sheer force of gravity. As the star is mercilessly chewed up by the black hole, it's gases are heated to unimaginable temperatures and a beacon is spit out, illuminating the galaxy and eventually rippling through every corner of the universe. In this way, about every 10,000 years a galaxies black hole may announce itself. These cosmic events are rare and difficult to understand, and simulations of such events are only possible through supercomputers, as explained by Roseanne Cheng, "Calculating the messy interplay between hydrodynamics and gravity is feasible on a human timescale only with a supercomputer." Because we have control over this virtual experiment and can repeat it, fast forward, or rewind as needed, we can examine the tidal disruption process from many perspectives. This in turn allows us to determine and quantify the most important physical processes at play." Hopefully these simulations will help scientists decode the signatures of tidal disruption, such as a black hole eating a star.  Read more about it here http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140414150848.htm.