Astronomers detect largest cosmic explosion ever seen (AT2021lwx)

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Astronomers detect largest cosmic explosion ever seen

12 May 2023

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Astronomers have discovered what they believe to be the largest explosion ever detected.

The explosion is more than 10 times brighter than any recorded exploding star - known as a supernova.

So far it has lasted more than three years, much longer than most supernovae which are usually only visibly bright for a few months.

One theory is that the blast was caused when a vast cloud of gas was swallowed up by a black hole.

A flash in the sky was first automatically detected and recorded in 2020 by the Zwicky Transient Facility in California. But it wasn't until a year later that it was picked up by astronomers combing through the data.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65571309


The actual explosion captured by a Nasa space telescope (NASA)

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Gotta be an omen

we need one

[Effete Snob]

2. MISSED!

[Layzeebeaver]

3. 8 Billion years ago

No danger... Return to your normally scheduled programme

[Judi Lynn]

4. Astronomers capture largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed

Fireball ‘100 times the size of the solar system’ thought to have been caused by gas being sucked into supermassive black hole



Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
@hannahdev
Thu 11 May 2023 19.01 EDT

It started as an unremarkable flicker in the night sky. But closer observations revealed that astronomers had captured the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed, an event thought to have been triggered by a giant cloud of gas being gobbled up by a supermassive black hole.

The flare-up, traced to 8bn light years away, is more than 10 times brighter than any known supernova and has so far lasted more than three years, making it the most energetic explosion on record.

“It went unnoticed for a year as it gradually got brighter,” said Dr Philip Wiseman, an astronomer at Southampton University who led the observations. It was only when follow-up observations revealed how distant it was that astronomers appreciated the event’s almost unimaginable scale.

“We’ve estimated it’s a fireball 100 times the size of the solar system with a brightness about 2tn times the sun’s,” Wiseman said. “In three years, this event has released about 100 times as much energy as the sun will in its 10bn-year lifetime.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/12/astronomers-capture-largest-cosmic-explosion-ever-witnessed