By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN, AP Science Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have spotted the brightest flare yet from a supermassive black hole that shines with the light of 10 trillion suns.

These bursts of light and energy can come from things like tangled-up magnetic fields or hiccups in the heated gas disks surrounding black holes . The flares help illuminate researchers’ understanding of the black holes within.

The latest cosmic display was spotted in 2018 by a camera at the Palomar Observatory in California. It took about three months to shine at peak brightness and has been decaying in the years since.

It likely happened because a large star wandered too close to the black hole and got shredded to pieces.

“At first, we didn’t really believe the numbers about the energy,” said st

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