18 February
2004: On 18 February 2004, ESA scientists announced they had seen a super-massive black hole ripping apart a star and consuming a portion of it.
According to data from ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray observatories, astronomers believe that a doomed star came too close to a giant black hole after a close encounter with another star threw it off course. These results are the best evidence yet that such a phenomenon, long predicted by theory, does actually happen.
As it neared the enormous gravity of the black hole, the star was stretched by tidal forces until it was torn apart. This discovery provides crucial information on how these black holes grow and affect the surrounding stars and gas.
1930: On 18 February 1930, US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto (from Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona).
