It seems like every time we discover something “big” in space, we find something even bigger. Astronomers have recently discovered the largest explosion ever witnessed in space, and it’s being called AT2021lwx.
The explosion has lasted for about three years at nearly 8 billion light-years away from Earth. What’s even crazier about this is it’s still being detected by telescopes, and the light from the explosion is three times brighter than tidal disruption events. If you didn’t know, tidal disruption events include tings such as when stars fall into black holes
Astronomers are saying AT2021lwx took place when a supermassive black hole disrupted a gas or dust cloud, which was thousands of times larger than our sun. The cloud was most likely drawn off it’s course and went into a black hole.
This explosion was first detected in November 2020, with the Zwicky Transient Facility in California. Even after that, it was also detected by Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in Hawaii months later.
If you are surprised by all of this, we have something that will boggle your mind – Astronomers are saying the explosion was nearly 100 times brighter than all the stars in the milky way combined. Wow.
Image Source: John A. Paice / Article: BBC