Jakarta –
A black hole has produced a powerful explosion of energy. This happened after he devoured a star that had a mass at least 30 times greater than the sun.
In fact, this event has not been confirmed as a tidal disruption event (TDE), but if this is successfully verified, it will be the most powerful and farthest explosion or energy flare ever recorded.
“If you converted our entire sun into energy, using Albert Einstein’s famous formula E = mc2, that’s how much energy has been poured out of this flare since we started observing it,” said an astronomer at the City University of New York (CUNY), Borough of Manhattan Community College, and the American Museum of Natural History and a member of the research team, KE Saavik Ford, in a statement, reported by Live Science, Saturday (8/11/2025).
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It is known that this finding can easily surpass the previous record holder. So in 2023, the cosmic explosion phenomenon titled ZTF20abrbeie, also known as Scary Barbie, is estimated to have swallowed a star with a mass between three and 10 times the mass of the Sun.
This event emerged from a giant black hole, also known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The supermassive black hole is believed to be 500 million times more massive than the sun. However, the distance is actually very far, namely 10 billion light years (for comparison, the age of the universe is around 13.8 billion years).
During the months astronomers observed the black hole, the flare shone up to 30 times brighter than any other flare seen before. The total energy emitted or peak Luminosity varied forty-fold during observation.
“The energy shows this object is very far away and very bright. It’s unlike any AGN we’ve ever seen,” said lead author Matthew Graham, research professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in a statement.
When this research paper was written, the flare in question was still ongoing, although it was slowly starting to fade. Graham said the flare was likely fading because the star had not yet been completely consumed.
Although the massive star thought to be torn apart in the TDE is a rare find, there are likely other stars out there. Researchers plan to examine data at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) to gain more information regarding this event. They say the recently completed Vera C. Rubin Observatory may discover even more new things out there in space.
(hps/asj)