Astronomers have found evidence of a black hole snacking on a star in data gathered back in the 1980s, according to new research.

The researchers say that they have identified the signature of such an event in data gathered during the 1980s, thanks to a pair of high school interns from Massachusetts.

When a star comes too close to a black hole, the massive object's gravity tugs at the star, pulling matter into the black hole and producing a burst of light in what astronomers dub a tidal disruption event.

And while astronomers have seen this phenomenon occur about 100 times, very few of those sightings rely on radio observations, as the 1980s event does.

Ravi and a team of scientists discovered the signature of a tidal disruption event in archival observations flagged by interns Ginevra Zaccagnini and Jackson Codd.

In their analysis of the event, the scientists concluded that the bright flash was likely caused by a supermassive black hole 500 million light-years away from Earth, which crushed a star and spat out a radio jet.

The researchers hope that the event and others like it will help them better understand tidal disruption events (also called TDEs), the black holes that cause them and the galaxies in which these black holes reside.

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