http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1010425–black-hole-eats-star-causes-mysterious-flash?bn=1

Astronomers think they have solved the mystery of an extraordinary flash spied in a faraway galaxy, saying it came from a massive black hole that devoured a star after it wandered too close. The awesome energy released by the feeding frenzy was first detected by NASA’s Swift satellite on March 28 and was later confirmed by a fleet of space and ground telescopes. Some scientists initially thought the bright flash was a gamma-ray burst from a star collapsing, but flaring from such an event typically lasts only a few hours.

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/b0/af/0e6568a44964b6ecbcd9606cdd3e.jpeg

Instead of fading, the cosmic outburst continued to burn bright and emit high-energy radiation that could be observed even today. Two separate teams pored through data and concluded that an unsuspecting star the size of our sun likely got sucked in by the powerful tug of a giant black hole. Until then, the black hole had been relatively inactive. The findings were published online Thursday in the journal Science. As the black hole gobbled up the star, it streamed a beam of energy straight at Earth that was recorded by telescopes. The stellar feast occurred in the heart of a galaxy 3.8 billion light years from Earth. A light year is about 6 trillion miles.