A minor body falling onto a neutron star as an explanation for the unusual gamma-ray burst GRB 101225A

Understand

The tidal disruption of a solar mass star around a supermassive black hole has been extensively studied analytically and numerically.

• In these events the star develops into an elongated banana-shaped structure.
• After completing an eccentric orbit, the bound debris fall onto the black hole, forming an accretion disk and emitting radiation.
• The same process may occur on planetary scales, if a minor body orbits too close to its star.