A groundbreaking astronomical observation has revealed the largest and most distant flare ever recorded from a supermassive black hole, affectionately nicknamed "Superman." This extraordinary flare originated from a region located an astounding 10 billion light-years away from Earth, and at its peak brightness, it outshone the light of 10 trillion suns. Such a remarkable event is fueled by an active galactic nucleus (AGN), which is a bright and compact region found at the center of a galaxy, powered by a supermassive black hole that actively consumes surrounding material.
The intense radiation emitted by the flare is a result of gas and dust spiraling into a rotating disk around the black hole. As this debris spirals closer, it heats up significantly, leading to the release of high-energy radiation. Researchers have speculated on the nature of the material consumed by the gargantuan black hole to produce such an extraordinary flare. Their findings suggest that the black hole likely devoured a massive star that would have otherwise met its end in a cataclysmic explosion.
According to Matthew Graham, a research professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and the lead author of a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, “About 1 in 10,000 AGN show some sort of flaring activity, but this is so extreme that it puts it into its own category (which is roughly a 1 in a million event).”
The flare, dubbed Superman, was initially detected in November 2018 by the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey and the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California. At first, the object did not appear unusual, merely bright; however, upon revisiting the early data five years later, astronomers recognized a significant change in brightness. Follow-up observations with telescopes such as the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii confirmed that the source of the light was far more luminous and energetic than originally thought.
The light originated from an active galactic nucleus estimated to be approximately 500 million times more massive than our sun. The team considered various explanations for the extreme brightness of the flare and ultimately concluded that it was likely caused by a tidal disruption event—an occurrence when a star ventures too close to a black hole and is torn apart.
The flare continues to evolve, indicating that the black hole is still in the process of consuming the star. Graham likened the situation to “a fish only halfway down the whale’s gullet.” At its peak, Superman reached a luminosity that was 30 times greater than any previously recorded black hole flare, with the star being consumed having a mass at least 30 times that of our sun.
Previously, the record for a tidal disruption event was held by ZTF20abrbeie, or “Scary Barbie,” which occurred when a black hole devoured a star between three and ten times the mass of our sun. K.E. Saavik Ford, a co-author of the study and an astronomy professor, stated, “This is probably the most massive star ever seen shredded by a supermassive black hole. That’s exciting because it tells us that massive stars must live in and around gas disks around supermassive black holes.”
The research team continues to monitor the fading flare, although the perception of time near a black hole differs from that experienced on Earth due to cosmological time dilation. Graham explained, “As the light travels across expanding space to reach us, its wavelength stretches as does time itself. Seven years here is two years there. We are watching the event play back at quarter speed.”
Given the flare’s distance of 10 billion light-years, it has taken that long for the light to reach Earth. The implications of this discovery extend beyond the flare itself; it opens avenues for identifying more rare events through advanced telescopes, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Such flares highlight that supermassive black holes have dynamic environments that are indeed more complex than mere sinks surrounded by swirling material.
Flares like Superman offer profound insights into the presence of incredibly large stars near the centers of galaxies, providing valuable information about the structure of galaxies themselves. Ford emphasized the importance of understanding these stars, stating, “How many are there, and what are they like, at such early times in the universe gives us a new way of investigating galaxy assembly over all.”
Dr. Danny Milisavljevic, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Purdue University, remarked on the significance of this discovery: “We once thought ‘Scary Barbie’ was a bizarre, one-of-a-kind anomaly, but this new flare is even more extreme, releasing as much energy as if the entire Sun were converted completely into electromagnetic radiation.” He noted that this phenomenon belongs to a newly emerging class of extreme nuclear transients that challenge existing models of black hole and star interactions.
Ultimately, the Superman flare sheds light on the growth of black holes, their ability to rip apart nearby stars, and the immense energy that can influence the surrounding galaxies. Alex Filippenko, a distinguished professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, stated, “When a supermassive black hole suddenly erupts in a brilliant flare, it gives astronomers a front-row seat to some of the most extreme physics in the Universe.” This remarkable observation has indeed opened a new window into the extreme physics of galactic centers.
