Astronomers have detected the most powerful and distant flare ever observed from a supermassive black hole. The event, named 'Superman', erupted from an active galactic nucleus (AGN) located approximately 10 billion light-years from Earth.
At its peak, 'Superman' briefly outshone 10 trillion suns and was 30 times more luminous than any previously recorded black hole flare.
Researchers believe the extraordinary burst of energy was caused by a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE), where the supermassive black hole tore apart a massive star as gas and dust spiralled into the galactic core.
The black hole involved is estimated to be 500 million times more massive than the Sun. The consumed star was also colossal, at least 30 times the Sun's mass, making it the largest star ever observed being shredded by a black hole.
Lead author Matthew Graham (Caltech) stated that this event is so rare it could be a "one-in-a-million" occurrence among active galaxies. Co-author KE Saavik Ford noted that the finding offers crucial clues about how such massive stars form and survive in the violent environments near galactic centres.
The flare was first detected in November 2018 by the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey and the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). It was initially mistaken for a blazar (a black hole launching high-energy jets) but subsequent analysis, including follow-up observations from the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii, confirmed its unprecedented brightness and energetic nature.
The study was published in Nature Astronomy.
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