"Discovery: 18 Black Holes Feeding on Nearby Stars"

MIT scientists have discovered 18 new tidal disruption events (TDEs) by using infrared observations, doubling the known TDEs in the nearby universe. These TDEs occur when a nearby star is drawn into a black hole and ripped apart, emitting bursts of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum. By looking in the infrared band, the team found TDEs in a variety of galaxies, resolving previous puzzles and providing a better understanding of how stars are devoured by black holes.