Stars are some of the most massive bodies in the universe. The mass of the Sun, our closest star, is about 1/3 of a million the mass of the Earth. Think about that. That is huge.
Stars, however, are nothing when compared to the mass of a black hole. It’s important to separate size and mass. Size refers to the physical dimensions of something. Mass refers to the gravitational force a body effects on another. While the mass of the Sun is 333,000 the mass of the Earth, you could fit 4-times that many Earths inside the Sun (1.3m). That tells us that while the Earth is physically many-times smaller than the Sun, it is much more massive than its size would lead you to believe.
Black holes are massive. If our Sun, a body that is over 1.3m the size of the Earth, became a black hole, its mass would remain as is, but its physical size would shrink to that of a large US city. Therefore, a black hole that is physically large means its mass is beyond our comprehension. And when a star finds its way close to that of a black hole, well, it is simply sacrificed to the ever-growing mass of the black hole.
