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Star-Shredding Black Hole’s Radio Jet Still Surging, With Peak Predicted Around 2027

New Astrophysical Journal results tie the years-late brightening to a likely relativistic jet that challenges standard tidal-disruption models.

Overview

  • The latest study reports AT2018hyz is roughly 50 times brighter in radio waves than early measurements and continues an unprecedented multi-year rise.
  • Radio monitoring with the Very Large Array in New Mexico and facilities in South Africa charts a powerful outflow that ignited years after the 2018 tidal disruption.
  • Researchers infer a single, likely relativistic jet that may have been initially misaligned with Earth, which would account for the delayed strong signal.
  • Energy estimates place the outflow near gamma-ray-burst scales, with illustrative comparisons exceeding at least a trillion times the energy of the fictional Death Star.
  • The source lies about 665 million light-years away, hosts a ~5 million–solar-mass black hole that tore apart a ~0.1-solar-mass red dwarf, and models predict a brightness peak around 2027.