Astronomers caught the largest cosmic explosion in history – Universe – Science and technology

An international team of scientists captured the largest space explosion in the history of space exploration.

The unimaginably large and bright explosion initially appeared as an inconspicuous flash in the night sky, its full extent was revealed only by subsequent observations. The explosion was apparently caused by a cloud of gas that was swallowed by a black hole, The Guardian writes with reference to a study published in the professional magazine Monthly.

The explosion, which is roughly eight billion light-years from Earth, is ten times brighter than any known supernova. So far it has been going on for three years.

“The explosion went unnoticed for a year, only after it gradually became brighter,” said the lead observer, astronomer Philip Wiseman of the University of Southampton. “We estimate that it is a fireball 100 times larger than the Solar System, which is about two trillion times brighter than our Sun,” said the expert, according to whom the explosion released 100 times more energy in three years than the Sun will release in 10 billion years of its existence. .

Explosion under the label AT2021lwx according to scientists, it comes from the collision of a huge cloud of gas, perhaps a thousand times larger than the Sun, with a supermassive black hole. The extent of the explosion is many times greater than what it would be in a supernova – stellar explosion. The simulation also indicated that it was unlikely to be a collision between a supermassive black hole and a star.

Despite its immense size, AT2021lwx is not the brightest cosmic phenomenon that humanity has ever observed. Last year, astronomers recorded a gamma-ray burst lasting several minutes, but brighter, which they named GRB 221003A.