No rare supernova, but a black hole ripping a star to shreds

What scientists initially believed was a rare supernova is now thought to be even more dramatic, a star ripped apart by a vast black hole. Researchers studying results from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) thought they’d spotted something unusual enough back in January, when they identified what at the time was thought to be a superluminous supernova. Though …