Astronomers using NASA's observatories and India's AstroSat have witnessed a massive black hole disrupting two celestial objects, one of which was a star. The event provides new insights into the behaviour of stellar debris around supermassive black holes. In 2019, a star ventured too close to a supermassive black hole and was torn apart by intense gravitational forces, a process known as a tidal disruption event (TDE).