“Astronomers Mystified by AT2021lwx: The Biggest Cosmic Explosion in the Universe”

LONDON – Astronomers still don’t know the exact cause cosmic explosion the largest in the universe named AT2021lwx. However, astronomers suspect the explosion, which is roughly 100 times the energy of the sun, was triggered by activity black hole .

Astronomers say that in the universe’s 6 billion year old activity, this is the most powerful cosmic explosion. This explosion is also the most mysterious because it lasts for many years and is 10 times as bright as a supernova.

“Most of the supernova events and tidal disruptions (tidal disruption) or bright flashes that occur when a black hole rips apart a wandering star last only a few months. For a bright object to occur for more than two years is very unusual,” said Philip Wiseman, an astronomer at the University of Southampton in England, quoted by SINDOnews from the Live Science page, Tuesday (16/5/2023).

Astronomers suspect the cataclysmic event AT2021lwx, which is 8 billion light years from Earth, was triggered by a messy black hole. Indeed, the cause is still mysterious, it’s just that the biggest possibility is due to a giant cloud of hydrogen gas that is thousands of times bigger than the sun being devoured by a supermassive black hole.

As the chunk of cloud is engulfed, a shockwave travels through the remaining hot gas, producing a gigantic explosion whose light has been bombarding Earth for more than two years and has not yet been extinguished. “We found this by chance, as indicated by our search algorithm when we were looking for a type of supernova,” said Philip Wiseman.

Using two telescope systems designed to survey the sky the researchers detect the bright, flashing lights from distant events. The two telescopes used are the Zwicky Transient Facility in California and the Terrestrial-impact Asteroid Final Warning System (ATLAS) in Hawaii.

It is known that black holes are born from the collapse of giant stars and grow by devouring gas, dust, stars and other black holes. For some voracious black holes, friction causes material swirling into their jaws to heat up and emit light that telescopes can detect and turn it into what’s called an active galactic nucleus (AGN).