Overview
- A study published November 4 in Nature Astronomy reports AGN J2245+3743 as the brightest and most distant black hole flare yet observed.
- First flagged by the Zwicky Transient Facility in 2018, the source brightened by roughly a factor of 40 over months, peaked that year, and remains observable as it slowly fades.
- W. M. Keck Observatory spectroscopy in 2023 established a distance of about 10 billion light-years, implying a peak output comparable to the light of approximately 10 trillion suns and about 30 times any prior black hole flare.
- The team interprets the event as a tidal disruption of a star of at least around 30 solar masses, after ruling out supernovae, simple jet variability, and gravitational lensing as explanations.
- Estimates place the host black hole at several hundred million solar masses with values still being refined, and ongoing monitoring and future surveys such as Rubin are expected to uncover more extreme events.