Astronomers have spied a star's swan song as it is shredded by a black hole.
Researchers suspect that the star wandered too close to the black hole and got sucked in by the huge gravitational forces.
The star's final moments sent a flash of radiation hurtling towards Earth.
The energy burst is still visible by telescope more than two-and-a-half months later, the researchers report in the journal Science.
The Swift spacecraft constantly scans the skies for bursts of radiation, notifying astronomers when it locates a potential flare.
These bursts usually indicate the implosion of an ageing star, which produces a single, quick blast of energy.
