These Cosmic Beasts Are Sparkling the Largest Explosion Since the Big Bang

The immense void of space implies that only one star can occupy a region at a time.

This phenomenon occurs because the mass of these stars is 80 billion times lighter than Earth, with three colossal entities devouring stars ten times larger than our Sun.

A recent study from the University of Hawaii reveals that astronomers, while analyzing data from NASA and the European Space Agency, have identified three ultra-massive black holes. A gigantic one consumes stars far exceeding the sizes of those that orbit the center of our solar system.

The explosions reported by these researchers happened when the black holes tore apart and engulfed the remnants of these stars, yielding the largest events since the Big Bang that shaped our universe.

“What excites me about this research is that we are extending the boundaries of our understanding of the most energetic environments in the universe,” stated Anna Payne, a staff scientist at the Institute of Space Telescope Science and co-author, in a NASA article.

Black holes are cosmic entities that remain unseen by the naked eye, possessing a gravitational force so intense it can capture everything, including light itself. Supermassive black holes, the largest varieties, reside at the centers of galaxies, gradually consuming planets and other materials.

When a star falls under the influence of a supermassive black hole, new research published this week suggests it could end in a dramatic explosion categorized as an “extreme nuclear transient.”Journals advance in science

“These occurrences are unique as they provide the only means for us to illuminate a massive black hole that would typically remain dormant,” noted University of Hawaii graduate student Jason Hinkle in a related article from NASA.NASA article.

Hinkle serves as the lead author of a new study that documents two such events for the first time in the last decade.

Two of the three supermassive black holes were observed by ESA missions in 2016 and 2018, marking the first time they were documented. The third, cataloged as ZTF20Abrbeie, was discovered by the Caltech Observatory in California in 2020 and officially recorded in 2023.

The explosion’s magnitude rivals only that of the Big Bang, which initiated the universe.

Differing from typical stellar explosions, the variations in X-rays, optical, and ultraviolet emissions in these events indicated a “star-consuming black hole.”

NASA explains that black holes actually become brighter during these cosmic occurrences, with their luminosity lasting several months.

This brightness offers scientists a new methodology to uncover additional black holes in the far reaches of the early universe. As astronomers peer into the cosmos, the farther they look, the more ancient light they detect. For instance, light from the Sun takes eight minutes to reach Earth.

“You can use these three objects as a template for what to search for in the future,” Payne remarked.