Imagine a star venturing a little too close to a black hole's event horizon and getting caught in an inescapable death trap. What do you see? Most of us would probably think of the star spiraling its hydrogen and helium into the abyss of space, but scientists say that it might be more violent than that.

According to astronomers in the Observatoire de Paris, violent explosions resulting from immense gravitational turbulence could happen when a star is drawn in, making way from some truly astounding stellar fireworks.

While some theorists have argued that the differing pulls in the gravitational field of a black hole may flatten a star's material like a pancake, this may not be entirely true. Some scientists suggest that while the pancake stage may happen, there are definitely a lot of indications that say that explosions will eventually rip the star apart from within.

What results after the gravity tears the pancake apart is a mass of glowing matter falling into the vortex never to escape again. NASA's GALEX spacecraft may have already seen such an event which was originally suspected to be a supernova. What it actually saw might have been an invisible black hole which is feeding on a star and blew it up in the process.

Some experts, however, find these theories and observations inconclusive. Supernova specialist Chris Fryer of the Los Alamos National Observatory says that  simulating deaths of celestial bodies is hard work. The full grasp of how it happens is not at hand at this time, making for a puzzle with plenty of missing pieces.