A never-before-seen fireball is streaming through space

According to scientists, the fireball, which reaches a mass of a hundred times the size of the solar system, may have been created by a giant gas being absorbed by a supermassive black hole, The Guardian reported on the discovery.

Heading the research Philip Wiseman, astronomer at the University of Southampton Said: The light of the eruption went unnoticed for a year, but since then it gradually became more and more intense. It was only when further observations determined its distance that the explosion’s astonishing dimensions were realized.

As Philip Wiseman explained,

The scientist added:

The AT2021lwx According to astronomers, the so-called explosion was caused by a huge cloud of gas, several thousand times larger than the Sun, which was swallowed by a supermassive black hole. The cloud of gas probably came from the donut that usually surrounds black holes. However, scientists have yet to find a precise explanation for why the black hole swallowed it.

Supermassive black holes are usually surrounded by a large cloud of gas and dust known as a doughnut. According to the authors of the study, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, some of this material – due to colliding galaxies – may have been torn apart and ended up in the black hole’s mouth.

As the material moved toward the black hole’s event horizon, it emitted enormous amounts of heat and light, illuminating and heating a portion of the donut to 12,000 to 13,000 degrees Celsius.

AT2021lwx is not the brightest event ever observed, as a bright gamma-ray burst named GRB 221009A was detected last year, but the event lasted only minutes. The AT2021lwx, on the other hand, is continuing for its third year, which means its output power is much higher.