Star tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole (centre), illustration. A tidal disruption event (TDE) occurs when a star (yellow) draws too close to a supermassive black hole, and is ripped apart. This causes a large burst of material outwards. In September 2019, ESO (European Southern Observatory) and NTL (new technology telescope) telescopes found a tidal disruption event named at2019qiz. This event happened at a distance of 215 million light years from Earth and is the nearest tidal disruption event found yet.