Prepare to be amazed by the incredible power of the universe! Astronomers have recently witnessed a mind-blowing event, a black hole flare so intense it outshone 10 trillion suns! But here's where it gets controversial...
This cosmic spectacle, named J2245+3743, is believed to be the result of a supermassive black hole, 500 million times the mass of our sun, feasting on an unfortunate star that wandered too close. Imagine a cosmic dinner party gone wrong!
"The energetics are off the charts!" exclaims astrophysicist Matthew Graham from Caltech. "This is not your typical active galactic nucleus (AGN)."
The event unfolded in 2018, with J2245+3743 suddenly brightening by a factor of 40 over a few months. It peaked at a dazzling 30 times brighter than the next most powerful AGN flare ever recorded, an event nicknamed "Scary Barbie."
But the story doesn't end there. J2245+3743 has been gradually fading since its peak, but it's still not back to its original brightness. By March 2025, when researchers submitted their findings, the energy released was equivalent to transforming the entire mass of the sun into electromagnetic radiation!
Now, here's the part most people miss: there are other cosmic events that can cause similar flares, like gamma-ray bursts, kilonovae, and even flickering AGNs. But after careful analysis, Graham and his team concluded that J2245+3743 was a classic case of a tidal disruption event (TDE), where a star, about 30 times the mass of our sun, ventured too close to the black hole's powerful gravity.
K. E. Saavik Ford, an astronomer from the City University of New York, adds, "Stars this massive are rare, but within the disk of an AGN, they can grow larger. The matter from the disk fuels their growth."
The black hole has been slowly devouring the disintegrated star, and astronomers believe it will return to its original brightness once every last bit of the star has fallen beyond the event horizon.
And here's the mind-boggling twist: from our perspective, J2245+3743 has remained brighter than its baseline for over six years, but the actual event likely transpired much quicker. It's like watching a cosmic slow-motion replay due to the expansion of the universe and the phenomenon of cosmological time dilation.
"Seven years here is two years there," Graham explains. "We're witnessing the event at a quarter of its actual speed."
Accounting for time dilation is crucial for accurately modeling TDEs and understanding their true duration. This knowledge will help astronomers identify similar events that may have been overlooked or misclassified in the past.
So, what do you think? Is this mind-bending cosmic phenomenon as fascinating as it seems? Feel free to share your thoughts and theories in the comments below!
