Astronomers have witnessed a rare cosmic event: a black hole tearing apart a massive star, unleashing an energy burst more powerful than any known supernova. Remarkably, part of the star's core survived the cataclysmic explosion, reports infohub.kz.
The event, designated AT2024wpp and nicknamed "Whippet," was detected by astronomers at Liverpool John Moores University. The black hole consumed a giant star, producing one of the most powerful energy flares ever recorded. In a brief moment, it released energy 400 billion times that of the Sun, with a shockwave traveling at one-fifth the speed of light.
Observations using the Liverpool Telescope and NASA's Swift satellite confirmed it as a rare optical transient. The shredded star's material formed a hot disk around the black hole, emitting intense X-rays.
Six months after the flare, the Keck and VLT telescopes detected anomalous traces of hydrogen and helium. The gas stream is moving at over 6,000 kilometers per second, indicating that a dense structure from the star's core survived and continues its journey through space.