{"id":217069,"date":"2025-06-04T08:05:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=217069"},"modified":"2025-06-04T08:52:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:52:33","slug":"biggest-explosion-since-big-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/06\/04\/biggest-explosion-since-big-bang\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> astronomers discover the biggest explosion since the Big Bang"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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An unlucky massive star approaches a supermassive black hole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A team at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s Institute for Astronomy (IfA<\/abbr>) has uncovered a dazzling new kind of cosmic explosion, more energetic than anything seen before. The team named these rare events “extreme nuclear transients” (ENT<\/abbr>s), which occur when massive stars—at least three times the mass of our Sun—are shredded by supermassive black holes. The team’s findings were recently published in Science Advances<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The star gets stretched by the intense tidal forces, eventually being ripped apart in a tidal disruption event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We\u2019ve observed stars getting ripped apart as tidal disruption events for over a decade, but these ENT<\/abbr>s are different beasts, reaching brightnesses nearly 10 times greater than what we typically see,” said Jason Hinkle, who led the study as the final piece of his doctoral research at IfA<\/abbr>. “Not only are ENT<\/abbr>s far brighter than normal tidal disruption events, but they remain luminous for years, far surpassing the energy output of even the brightest known supernova explosions.”<\/p>\n

ENT<\/abbr>s are millions of times rarer than supernovae. But their extreme brightness means they can be seen even in extremely distant galaxies, giving scientists a new way to study black holes in the early universe.<\/p>\n

Discovery through data<\/h2>\n
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A glowing disk of gas forms around the black hole, driving the explosive energy of an ENT<\/abbr><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the ENT<\/abbr>s studied in this work, named Gaia18cdj<\/abbr>, released 25 times more energy than the most powerful supernova on record. In just one year, it radiated energy equal to the lifetime output of 100 Suns. Most supernovae, in comparison, produce only one Sun\u2019s lifetime output over a similar timescale.<\/p>\n

Hinkle first spotted the strange flares while combing through publicly available data from the Gaia space telescope. Unlike more common cosmic explosions that fade over several weeks, ENT<\/abbr>s glow steadily for years.<\/p>\n

“Gaia observations don\u2019t tell you what a transient is, just that something changed in how bright it appears to us,” said Hinkle. “But when I saw these smooth, long-lived flares from the centers of distant galaxies, I knew we were looking at something unusual.”<\/p>\n

Rare cosmic events<\/h2>\n
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Infrared light reflects off a dusty ring around the black hole and accretion disk<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
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For almost a year, the cosmic explosion outshines every star in its galaxy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n

Hinkle used years of observations from UH<\/abbr>\u2019s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System with telescopes on Haleakal\u0101 and Mauna Loa, the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, and other telescopes on and orbiting the Earth to characterize these events. Researchers confirmed these weren\u2019t supernovae or normal black hole activity. Instead, ENT<\/abbr>s appear to be caused by a smoother, more drawn-out process, stars multiple times as massive as our Sun being slowly consumed by black holes.<\/p>\n

“ENT<\/abbr>s provide a valuable new tool for studying massive black holes in distant galaxies,” said Benjamin Shappee, an associate professor at IfA<\/abbr> who co-authored the study. “Because they’re so bright, we can see them across vast cosmic distances—and in astronomy, looking far away means looking back in time. By observing these prolonged flares, we gain insights into black hole growth when the universe was half its current age and galaxies were busy places\u2014forming stars and feeding their supermassive black holes 10 times more vigorously than they do today.”<\/p>\n

More ENT<\/abbr>s<\/h2>\n
\"Illustration
Over a year later, the black hole quiets and the ENT fades from view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronomers hope to spot many more ENT<\/abbr>s, with each offering a glimpse into the powerful forces shaping galaxies across cosmic time. Future observatories such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and NASA\u2019s Roman Space Telescope could uncover many more of these spectacular events, revolutionizing our understanding of black hole activity in the distant, early universe.<\/p>\n

“These ENT<\/abbr>s don\u2019t just mark the dramatic end of a massive star\u2019s life. They illuminate the processes responsible for growing the largest black holes in the universe,” said Hinkle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IfA<\/abbr> researchers uncovered a new kind of cosmic explosion, named extreme nuclear transients which occur when massive stars are shredded by supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[34,656,35,1701,659,1421,9],"class_list":["post-217069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-astronomy","tag-haleakala","tag-institute-for-astronomy","tag-mauna-loa","tag-maunakea","tag-maunakea-observatories","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t