# The REVOLUTIONARY PHYSICS of Black Hole Star Capture | Extreme Tidal Disruption Events

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/the-new-physics-of-black-hole-star-capture-extreme-tidal-disruption-events
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/the-new-physics-of-black-hole-star-capture-extreme-tidal-disruption-events.md
Podcast: [PBS Space Time](https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773)
Published: 2026-07-20T05:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG8434591423.mp3?updated=1778671276
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG8434591423.mp3?updated=1778671276
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pbs-space-time-7778773/episodes/the-new-physics-of-black-hole-star-capture-extreme-tidal-disruption-events
Duration seconds: 1483

## Resource

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime If you track the motion of individual stars in the ultra-dense star cluster at the very center of the Milky Way you’ll see that they swing in sharp orbits around some vast but invisible mass—that’s the Sagittarius A* supermassive black hole. These are perilous orbits, and sometimes a star wanders just a little too close to that lurking monster, leading to its utter destruction in the spectacular phenomenon known as a tidal disruption event. We’ve never seen a TDE in the Milky Way, but we’ve seen them in distant galaxies—and we now know how to spot stellar destructions so extreme that they reveal properties of the black hole itself. Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt Caplan, Andy Santarelli & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2024 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com…

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