A new study reveals that a supermassive black hole has violently consumed a giant star, resulting in a cosmic explosion with a brightness equivalent to 10 trillion suns. This phenomenon, termed a black hole flare, is believed to be the largest and most distant ever recorded, according to lead author Matthew Graham from the California Institute of Technology.
While it’s common for black holes to gobble nearby stars and matter, such massive flare events are extremely rare. The explosion’s peak intensity surpassed all previously observed black hole flares by a factor of 30, attributed to the significant mass of both the black hole and the star involved—estimated at 500 million and at least 30 times the mass of the Sun, respectively.
First detected in 2018 during a massive sky survey, the flare was initially overlooked until Graham and colleagues revisited past data in 2023. They found the object to be unexpectedly far away, raising questions about its energy emission.
The specifics of how the star was disrupted remain uncertain, but Graham suggests that a cosmic collision may have altered its orbit. This discovery enhances our understanding of black holes and their dynamic environments, challenging the previous notion of them as static entities. The flares are gradually diminishing but will still be observable for several years.
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