'Unluckiest star' may be trapped in deadly dance with a black hole

A star appears to be locked in a lethal dance with a supermassive black hole. According to a team of astronomers, this unlucky star gets almost torn apart each time its orbit swings past the black hole on a tight loop. If they are right, we might see it happen again two years from now.

If a star gets close enough to a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy, it can be tidally disrupted, which means the black hole’s gravitational field stretches the star and…