They discover the biggest cosmic explosion ever seen

A group of scientists from University of Southampton published a study on the discovery of the largest cosmic explosion ever discovered. it’s extremely bright and was active for three yearswhat is the release for? Large amount of energy.

The cosmic explosion was dubbed as AT2021lwx and at the moment it is of unknown origin, although there are some theories in which, of course, a black hole cannot be missing.

In particular, it is believed that the black hole collided with a cloud of gas and dust, which was inexorably drawn inward, releasing powerful bursts of energy and forming a kind of donut around it. But what else do we know about this amazing cosmic explosion?

Unique space explosion

This cosmic explosion was first captured in 2020 in Zwicky Detention Center in California. The images were subsequently confirmed Last Asteroid Earth Impact Alert System (ATLAS)located in Hawaii. Both objects are responsible for searching for flying objects in the night sky. big changes in its brightness. This makes it possible to detect large explosions such as supernovae or simpler objects such as comets and asteroids.

In particular, the scientists responsible for the discovery were looking for a supernova when they discovered this cosmic explosion. However, supernova explosions usually last several months, so it was clear that this was something else.

They had no idea what its origin was, so they turned to other telescopes: Nile Herels Swift Telescope (joint work between NASA, UK and Italy), New Technology Telescope (operated by the European Southern Observatory) in Chile and Gran Telescopio de CanariaLa Palma, Spain.

With all of them, they got more data. For example, thanks to the analysis of its spectrum, they were able to calculate the distance, to some 8 billion light years. As for the brightness, they recorded the one that reached the telescopes. However, once they calculated the distance, it was very easy to calculate the brightness of the cosmic explosion at its source.

not a quasar

In the entire history of astronomy, only one thing brighter than this cosmic explosion has been measured: a gamma-ray burst known as GRB 221009A. However, although the AT2021lwx is slightly less bright, it is much longerso the energy output is much higher.

There is only one known object type that can be this. bright and energetic: quasars. For this reason, as it is logical, they became one of the first hypotheses of these scientists. However, further analysis showed that this was also the wrong option.

quasars newborn galaxies. As is usually the case in galaxies, there is a black hole at their center, which emits large bursts of energy in these young galaxies. To identify them, astronomers watch their brightness flicker over time. However, when these scientists turned to the history of this cosmic explosion, they found no such changes in brightness. Therefore, it was not a quasar either.

The next hypothesis, and so far the only one that seems to be correct, is a black hole absorbing a cloud of gas. But it’s not safe. Therefore, these scientists plan to create computational models to confirm this. In addition, they hope that the introduction of new tools such as Obsolete overview of space and time from the Vera Rubin observatory, allows them to better observe their find and find its origin. They may even find more cosmic explosions like this one. In the meantime, we can say that they have already gone down in history.