Supermassive black holes almost universally anchor the centers of galaxies, where their immense gravity dominates surrounding celestial traffic . Yet theoretical models have suggested that violent galactic mergers could kick these gravitational giants literally out into space. When smaller galaxies crash into larger ones, or when three or more supermassive black holes engage in a gravitational tug-of-war, the lightest among them can be flung into orbit and left to wander in relative isolation. Because black holes emit no light of their own, these outcast leviathans remain completely invisible, until something like a star strays too close. As the target star drifted toward the roughly one-million-solar-mass black hole, the extreme tidal forces proceeded to stretch and rip the star apart.