Scientists have spotted the brightest flare yet from a 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 . The flares help illuminate 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 study author Matthew Graham with the California Institute of Technology, which operates Palomar.

The new findings were published Tuesday in the jour

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