Overview
- A Caltech-led team reports in Nature Astronomy that AGN J2245+3743 produced the most luminous black-hole flare yet observed, peaking at roughly the light of 10 trillion Suns and about 30 times brighter than any previous event.
- The source lies around 10 billion light-years away, and the central black hole is estimated at about 500 million solar masses with the disrupted star at least 30 solar masses.
- The flare brightened by a factor of approximately 40 over several months, peaked in 2018, and remains detectable as it declines, offering a rare long-baseline view of such an event.
- Initial identification came from the Zwicky Transient Facility in 2018; follow-up spectroscopy with Keck in 2023 established the large distance and implied extreme energetics.
- Analyses ruled out alternatives such as a supernova, gravitational lensing, or routine AGN variability, strengthening the case for a tidal disruption event and hinting that very massive stars can form and orbit within AGN disks.