Earlier quoted context omitted.
It ate a star.
But that would take infinite time (as we perceive the event) because of time dilation. You would not see it "turn on", you would see a slowly, very slowly, changing signal.
When an accretion disk is actively ripping apart a celestial body the plasma is some of the hottest material in the current universe. It's extremely violent and bright. You're seeing a gravitational well converting a huge quantity of mass to energy.