A bright flash of gamma rays observed on March 28 by the Swift satellite may have been the death rattle of a star falling into a massive black hole and being ripped apart.

When Swift detected the flash, astronomers initially thought it was a gamma-ray burst from a collapsing star.

However, research led by astronomers at the University of Warwick has confirmed that the flash—one of the biggest and brightest bangs yet recorded by astronomers—came from a massive black hole at the centre of a distant galaxy.

The black hole appears to have ripped apart a star that wandered too close, creating a powerful beam of energy that crossed the 3.8 billion light years to Earth.

Oh, you know, just another day in science, watching a star being swallowed by black hole. Nothing special.