Historic Black Hole Flare: Scientists Call It the Largest Ever and as Bright as 10 Trillion Suns

A distant black hole devoured a whole star and burped a massive light flare, as bright as 10 trillion suns. According to a recent study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the cosmic outburst is the biggest and most distant black hole flare ever recorded. Astronomer Matthew Graham of the California Institute of Technology led the research and revealed that the flare took place approximately 10 billion light-years away. “This is really a one-in-a-million object,” he said.

Graham explained that the brightness of these cosmic flares is directly proportional to the intensity and duration of the event. Nevertheless, research needed to be conducted to confirm this hypothesis. Although it's not unusual for a black hole to engulf a star, scientist believes that such an enormous flare is a rare occurrence. 

“This massive flare is just so much more energetic than anything we’ve ever seen before,” he said, as reported by NBC News. Graham added that the recent flare was 30 times more luminous than any flare recorded in the past. He believes that the intensity elevated because both cosmic objects involved in the event – the star and the black hole –  were large in size. The phenomenon was likely triggered when a star wandered too close to the black hole and was violently swallowed.

Astronomer and study co-author KE Saavik Ford explained what could have happened in the black hole: one of the cosmos' greatest mysteries. "The star wandered close enough to the supermassive black hole that it was ‘spaghettified’ – that is, stretched out to become long and thin, due to the gravity of the supermassive black hole strengthening as you get very close to it," Ford said, as per Reuters. 

"That material then spiralled around the supermassive black hole as it fell in,” he added. The flare was likely caused by the gas released from the destroyed star. While shredding the star generated heat, energy, and a bright shine before entering the oblivion of the black hole. "Stars this massive are spectacularly rare both because smaller stars are born more often than massive ones, and because very massive stars live very short lives," Ford added.

But the researchers believe that it probably wasn't the fault of the large star. They believe that stars near a supermassive black hole tend to get larger by feeding on the material or debris coming out of it. It's like the black hole provides a false sense of security before stabbing the star in the back and engulfing it whole. 

The researchers decided to revisit the previously recorded flares and found that the first-ever flare was recorded in 2018 during an extensive survey across the sky using three ground-based telescopes. The flare was described as a “particularly bright object” at the time, as per Graham. The researchers didn't dig deeper into the mystery of the bright object until recently and found that the event occurred quite far away.

“Suddenly it was: 'Oh, this is actually quite far away. And if it’s that far away and it’s this bright, how much energy is being put out? This is now something unusual and very interesting," Graham added. This recent cosmic event helped change the researchers' perspective on black holes. What they once thought to be stagnant turned out to be quite dynamic.

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