Barbara Kennedy

Astronomers caught a black hole tearing apart a star in the center of a galaxy about 290 million light years away from Earth.

A fast-moving pulsar appears to have punched a hole in a disk of gas around its companion star and to have launched a fragment of the disk outward at a speed of about 40 million miles per hour.

Astronomers say they have a clearer picture why two giant planets are able to orbit close to their star without getting flung into the star or colliding into each other.