Artist’s impression of a black hole destroying a nearby star – a phenomenon that might explain a new type of stellar explosion
ESA/C. Carreau
A newly discovered explosion in the sky is baffling astronomers as it does not resemble any supernova observed before. This explosion, named AT2022aedm or Adam, was detected by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast using the ATLAS network of telescopes. It rapidly became hundreds of billions of times brighter than the sun, exceeding the brightness of most known supernovae, before fading away within a month. This unique behavior has led scientists to classify it as a new type of object called “luminous fast coolers” or LFCs.
The host galaxy of Adam is relatively old and lacks the large, young stars typically associated with supernovae. Therefore, the possibility of the explosion being caused by the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole or the collision of two stars has been ruled out. The leading explanation is that Adam was the result of a rare event where an intermediate-mass black hole tore apart and consumed a star. This process would explain the sudden brightening and the fast dimming. However, the lack of X-rays emitted by Adam remains a challenge to this explanation.
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