Scientists watch flare with 10 trillion suns’ light from massive black hole

Scientists have captured the most powerful flare ever to come from a supermassive black hole, a cataclysmic event that briefly reflected the light of ten trillion suns.

The study was led by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) astronomer Matthew Graham, who published the new findings on Tuesday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

An unusually large star veered too close to the black hole, causing a shocking burst of energy, which was likely the catalyst for the extraordinary burst of energy.

The star “spaghfied” as it approached the supermassive black hole, which is caused by the gravity of the supermassive black hole strengthening as you get very close to it. According to astronomer and co-author KE Saavik Ford, that material then spiraled around the supermassive black hole as it did.

A black hole located about 11 billion light years away from Earth unleashed the supermassive black hole, which is roughly 300 million times the mass of the sun. 5.9 trillion miles (9.9 trillion kilometers) is the length of a year in which light travels.

The star was transformed into a stream of gas that heated up and shined intensely as it disappeared into obscurity, a mass estimated to be between 30 and 200 times the mass of the sun.

Supermassive black holes are present in the center of almost every large galaxy, including our Milky Way. However, scientists are still unsure of their formation.

The flare, which was first discovered in 2018 by the Caltech-run Palomar Observatory, took about three months to reach its maximum brightness, becoming roughly 30 times more luminous than any other event of its kind. The entire process is anticipated to take about 11 years to be finished, but the luminosity is still declining.