Astronomers using data from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and other observatories from around the world have discovered the most energetic explosions that occur from Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.
Black holes, being one of the most boring space objects, cannot be seen by our observations, except when something else interacts with them. For years, we have observed them indirectly through events of disturbance of the tides (TDES), when the gravitational forces of the black hole create “tides” which tear a star by giant gas streams which surround the black hole like debris.
These events are very energetic, but in a new study, a team from the Institute of Astronomy (IFA) of the University of Hawaii (IFA) reports a new class of events that makes them puny in comparison. By looking for the GAIA of ESA data, the main author Jason Hinkle found several unusual life rockets that took place in 2016 and 2018.
After examining the observations of other terrestrial and spatial telescopes, the team found that they – and a third identified in 2020 – were the most energy -known explosions to date. The new cosmic explosion class has been nicknamed extreme nuclear transients (ETTs).
“We have observed that the stars separate as disturbance events of the tides for more than a decade, but these Ents are different animals, reaching light almost 10 times higher than what we generally see,” said Hinkle in a statement. “Not only are ETTs much brighter than the disturbance events of normal tides, but they remain bright for years, far beyond the energy production of the brightest supernova explosions.”
According to the team, while the supernovae – the explosions at the end of the life of a massive star – emit around the same energy as the sun during its lifespan of 10 billion years, the Ents radiate the energy of 100 suns. For a while, these events surpass each star and supernova from the host galaxy from afar. The most powerful of these detected events – GAIA18CDJ – has emitted 25 times more energy than the most powerful supernova ever observed, which makes it the most powerful cosmic explosion from the Big Bang.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v6v4u1n31k
These events are much rarer than supernova, but could be useful for studying black supermassive holes (SMBH) in the center of distant galaxies.
“These Ents not only mark the dramatic end of the life of a massive star,” said Hinkle. “They illuminate the processes responsible for the growth of the biggest black holes in the universe.”
“Ents provide a new precious tool for studying massive black holes in distant galaxies. Because they are so brilliant, we can see them through great cosmic distances – and in astronomy, watch far means looking back,” said Benjamin Shappee, an aggregated teacher at IFA, added in a second statement. “By observing these prolonged thrusts, we get an overview of the growth of black holes when the universe was half of its current age and the galaxies were occupied places – form stars and feed their supermassive holes 10 times more vigorous than today.”
While we have to observe more of these events to study black holes, the team considers to have a reasonable explanation of what causes them.
“The most plausible physical scenario for these stars is the disturbance of the tides of a high mass star and the subsequent return of the material on the SMBH. The high masses of the SMBH naturally provide long -term rockets consistent with the ENT time ladders, because the escape time ladders are like escape time scales because MBH1/2“The team writes in their article.
“While around half of the stellar mass disturbed in a TDE leaves the system, the total radiated energies provide a limit lower than the stellar masses of (more than 3 solar masses). Time scales and luminosities for the disturbance of ~ 3 to 10 (solar mass) The stars correspond to the observables.”
In addition to being useful for studying supermassive black holes, events must be understood for their effect on the central regions of their host galaxies.
“This has implications for the environments in which these events occur,” said Hinkle added. “If the galaxies have these events, they are important for the galaxies themselves.”
The study is published in Scientific advances.