Black holes keep tearing these stars apart, but they survive

When stars pass close to a supermassive black hole without being fully destroyed, they can survive and return repeatedly, producing bursts of light each time. Scientists were puzzled by why some of these flares grow progressively dimmer. New research from Syracuse University found the answer: stars that were already spinning rapidly before their first encounter produce steadily fainter flares, likely because they were captured from a binary star system by the black hole's gravity.