“Astronomers Record Biggest Cosmic Explosion ‘Scary Barbie’ in Universe”

WASHINGTON – Astronomers recorded cosmic explosion greatest happening in the universe nicknamed “Scary Barbie”. This cosmic explosion resulted very bright light and lasts a very long time, about 3 years.

This event was reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Study submitted by two independent groups. In their paper they define the explosion as AT2021lwx, otherwise known as ZTF20abrbeie.

In the study, it was explained that the event was a star that was torn apart by a supermassive black hole or known as the phenomenon of tidal disruption. Scary Barbie is three times brighter than the brightest tidal disruption event ever recorded.

The second paper argues that supermassive black holes don’t rip apart and eat up stars about 15 times the mass of the Sun. Instead it feeds on a more massive cloud of gas about 1,000 times heavier than the Sun.

“Initially, we thought this explosion could be the result of a black hole eating a passing star. But it turns out that this black hole swallows 15 times the mass of the Sun, making it very bright,” said Dr Matt Nicholl from Queen University Belfast quoted SINDOnews from the IFLScience page, Monday (15/5/2023).

The uniqueness of Scary Barbie is not only about the energy that is emitted so brightly, but also about a long duration of about three years. Usually supernova events or tidal disturbances are only visible for a few months and are not as bright.

“Meeting such a big star is very rare. Many massive black holes are surrounded by gas and dust and we are still trying to figure out why these black holes started eating so quickly and suddenly,” said Nicholl.

Even transient events that can be this bright, such as the recently brightest gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A (which was actually even brighter), last for minutes, not years.