• Scientists have observed a flare from a supermassive black hole that shines with the brightness of 10 trillion suns.
• The flare resulted from a large star being shredded after wandering too close to the black hole.
• This cosmic event is the most energetic flare ever recorded, located about 11 billion light-years away.

Recently, astronomers recorded the most energetic flare ever observed from a supermassive black hole, which lit up with the brilliance of 10 trillion suns. This incredible phenomenon was triggered when a large star, estimated to be between 30 and 200 times the mass of the sun, wandered too close to the black hole and was violently shredded. The findings were published on November 4 in the journal Nature Astronomy, with the study led by Matthew Graham of Caltech, who also noted the unexpected energy levels of the flare, stating, "At first, we didn’t really believe the numbers about the energy," according to Reuters, CBS News, Al Jazeera, and Los Angeles Times.

The flare was first detected in 2018 by a telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California, marking it as the most distant black hole flare observed, approximately 10 billion light-years from Earth. As the star fell towards the black hole, its material created a luminous burst by heating up and shining intensely during its spiral descent, a process described as being "spaghettified." The duration of this peak brightness was about three months, and it has been gradually decaying since then, as reported by Reuters, CBS News, Al Jazeera, and Los Angeles Times.

Scientists believe this event provides unique insights into the formative interactions of supermassive black holes with their surrounding environments during the universe’s early epochs. As almost every large galaxy, including the Milky Way, harbors a supermassive black hole, studies like these are crucial for understanding their formation and influence on local stellar systems. Joseph Michail from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics remarked that these findings help researchers "probe the interaction of supermassive black holes with their environments early in the universe," adding to the context of cosmic evolution, according to Reuters, CBS News, Al Jazeera, and Los Angeles Times.