Illustration of a star falling into a supermassive black hole. The glowing of material is known as a tidal disruption flare. When a star passes within a certain distance of a black hole, close enough to be gravitationally disrupted, the stellar material gets stretched and compressed as it falls into the black hole. In the process of being accreted around the black hole, surrounding gas clouds are shown heating up which creates optical, infrared and and ultraviolet light emissions.