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.
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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,”

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