Astronomers simulate a star's final moments as it's swallowed by a black hole: 'Breaks like an egg'

A new computer simulation shows the final moments before a neutron star is consumed by a black hole.

The results suggest that in those last moments, the star's surface cracks apart much like the ground during an earthquake.

Just before the neutron star disappears into the black hole's abyss, some of the most powerful shock waves known to us would erupt outward in a kind of violent, final farewell.