Astronomers spot largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed

[brooklynite]

CNN

Astronomers have spotted the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed, and it’s 10 times brighter than any known exploding star, or supernova.

The brightness of the explosion, called AT2021lwx, has lasted for three years, while most supernovas are only bright for a few months.

The event, still being detected by telescopes, occurred nearly 8 billion light-years away from Earth when the universe was about 6 billion years old. The luminosity of the explosion is also three times brighter than tidal disruption events, when stars fall into supermassive black holes.

But what triggered such a long-lived, massive cosmic explosion? Astronomers said they think a supermassive black hole disrupted a vast gas or dust cloud, potentially thousands of times larger than our sun. It’s possible that the cloud was drawn off the course of its orbit and went flying into the black hole, the researchers said.

[TeamProg]

1. B-b-but Her Emails!

[AZ8theist]

2. When I saw the source was CNN, I thought they were referring to Dumps town hall criticisms..

[Silent3]

3. Big...