A never-before-seen type of giant space explosion – the biggest bangs since the Big Bang – has been accidentally captured by the Gaia space telescope.

From the hearts of distant galaxies, the mapping telescope recorded sudden, extreme increases in brightness – colossal flares of light that lingered far longer than any such flares had been known to previously.

These blasts were calculated to release as much energy as 100 Suns would over the course of their combined lifetimes.

Analysis of that light revealed something that was both new and familiar at the same time: stars being torn apart by black holes , but on a scale we hadn't observed before.

Each star was a large one, at least three times as massive as the Sun; and each black hole was a supermassive beast lurking in the center

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