Watch | NASA animation shows what black holes would do to stars

NASA uploaded a video on October 21 illustrating how a passing star can be shredded by a black hole if it wanders too close, showcasing the space agency's new findings.

According to the video description provided by NASA, in the event that a star gets too close to a black hole it gets ripped apart by intense tidal forces.

When such an incident, referred to as “tidal disruptions”, occurs, part of the stellar debris moves outwards while the other falls inwards, toward the black hole itself.

This in turn results in a distinct X-ray flare lasting up to a few years, according to NASA.

The new data presented in the animation was gathered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer, and ESA/NASA's XMM-Newton during a tidal disruption event known as ASASSN-14li.

The event happened near a super black hole, weighing million times the mass of the sun, located in the centre of a galaxy roughly 290 million light-years away.