Black holes are infamous for gulping stars and tearing apart galaxies, but it's not always a fast process. On Thursday, astronomers reported that they have seen a star being swallowed from starting till end over a time span of several months.

They have reported in the journal Science that for the first time ever they have detected a spurt of plasma at the event horizon.

Sjoert van Velzen at Johns Hopkins University and colleagues wrote that their observations have become the first ones to sample the light curve within a month of the peak. In a statement, van Velzen added, “It's the first time we see everything from the stellar destruction followed by the launch of a conical outflow, also called a jet, and we watched it unfold over several months”.

The star has nearly the same size as that of our sun. Its slide into the black hole is known as ASASSN-14li, and was first seen in 2014 by Ohio State University team. Van Velzen and colleagues instantly trained radio, x-ray and optical telescopes and satellites onto the spectacle in a galaxy nearly 300 million light years far. They succeeded in catching it.

Earlier observations of black holes in action came after the objects began taking in a star. The team was fast enough this time to watch a blip, a plasma burst that came out soon after the star crossed the rim of the hole.

Van Velzen mentioned that a star’s destruction by a black hole is wonderfully complicated, and not at all easy to understand.Van Velzen added that earlier attempts to find proof for these jets, including his, were not quick enough.