Astronomers have recorded the brightest energy flare ever observed. It occurred when a supermassive black hole tore apart and swallowed a huge star that came too close. This is reported by UNN with reference to Reuters.
The flare, which at its peak was 10 trillion times brighter than the Sun, originated in a galaxy located about 11 billion light-years from Earth.
Its source was a black hole with a mass of about 300 million Suns, much more massive than the one at the center of our Milky Way.
Researchers believe that the event occurred when a star with a mass of 30 to 200 solar masses came too close to the black hole. Under the influence of colossal gravity, it was torn apart - a phenomenon, and its remnants began to fall inward, causing powerful radiation.
According to astronomers, the star was probably part of a group of luminaries orbiting the black hole. It could have changed its orbit due to a collision or gravitational interaction with another body, which brought it closer to the point of no return.
"Whatever the case, the star got close enough to the supermassive black hole that it was 'spaghettified' – that is, stretched out, becoming long and thin, due to the supermassive black hole's gravity, which intensifies as you get very close to it. Then this material spiraled around the supermassive black hole as it fell inward," said astronomer and co-author of the study K. E. Saavik Ford of Manhattan Community College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
As the star's remnants began to fall into the black hole, the gas heated up and glowed, creating a spectacular flare. During the observations, its brightness increased 40 times, reaching a maximum in June 2018. This flare turned out to be 30 times more powerful than any other previously recorded.
Observations were conducted using telescopes in California, Arizona, and Hawaii. Other possible explanations — a star explosion, a jet of matter, or gravitational lensing — were rejected as they did not match the collected data.
The event astronomers are seeing today actually happened billions of years ago — so far away that it took light almost the entire age of the Universe to reach Earth.
Now the flare is gradually fading, and researchers predict that the process will last about 11 years.
"The flare is still fading," said lead author of the study, astronomer Matthew Graham of the California Institute of Technology.
Recall:
Chemical reactions that may indicate the existence of life have been discovered in the depths of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. According to the analysis of Cassini probe data, organic compounds that are precursors to life have been found.