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The most powerful cosmic explosion ever observed has been witnessed by astronomers, who suspect it occurred due to the disruption of a gas cloud by a supermassive black hole.
The explosion, which was named AT2021lwx, occurred billions of light-years away and was initially detected in 2020. However, it has persisted for more than three years, implying that an enormous amount of material was involved in the incident. The team’s study detailing the explosion was released today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
According to a press release from the University of Southampton, Sebastian Hönig, an astronomer at the university and co-author of the paper, explained that once you have knowledge of an object’s distance and apparent brightness, you can determine the object’s brightness at its source. “After making these calculations,” he said, “we became aware that the object is remarkably luminous.”
AT2021lwx, with its multi-year outburst, outshines even the Brightest of All Time (BOAT) gamma-ray burst detected last year. Although BOAT still holds the title for the brightest-known explosion, its brightness was short-lived compared to AT2021lwx.
AT2021lwx illuminates the sky with an explosion as brilliant as that of a quasar, a luminous active galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole at its center. However, unlike quasars, this astronomical phenomenon has only recently emerged. Researchers speculate that the event resulted from a cloud colliding with a supermassive black hole.
The universe harbors black holes, which are the most compact entities known to exist. Their gravitational force is so strong that not even light can break free from their event horizons. These mysterious entities were initially conjectured by Einstein, but they have now been detected as dark shadows through extensive observations using massive radio telescopes. Consequently, scientists have gained invaluable insights into the extreme physics governing black holes.
According to the latest findings by an astronomical team, the explosion was likely triggered by gas or dust that deviated from a cloud revolving around the black hole, and subsequently plunged into the highly compact entity. Although we are presently observing the material as it continues to fall into the black hole, the explosion occurred approximately 8 billion years ago.
Philip Wiseman, the lead author of the paper and an astronomer at the University of Southampton, expressed his optimism about the new facilities that will be available in the next few years, such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time at the Vera Rubin Observatory. He anticipates that these facilities will lead to the discovery of more events similar to the one studied in their research, providing further insights into these events. Wiseman further speculated that these rare but energetic events might play a crucial role in the evolution of galaxy centers over time.
Utilizing the world’s most extensive digital camera, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time will capture images of the nighttime sky every 15 seconds, providing astronomers worldwide with an unprecedented, constantly evolving perspective of the universe.
The team plans to collect X-ray data on the explosion, among other wavelengths of light, to better understand the origins of the gargantuan blast.
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