Mankind, who has been studying space for centuries, has witnessed many different incredible events so far. Astronomers who have studied other planets, galaxies, stars and black holes for years have also witnessed many explosions in space. The largest explosion ever detected is called AT2021lwx.
The biggest explosion in space continues to be investigated
AT2021lwx, thought to originate from a gas cloud being torn apart by a supermassive black hole, was first discovered in 2020. The research of the team that detected the explosion was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society yesterday.
The massive burst dwarfs the BOAT burst, a gamma-ray burst detected last year, in terms of total energy. While BOAT is still the brightest known explosion, AT2021lwx, which lasted more than a year, is the largest explosion ever detected.
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As bright as a quasar, the explosion is believed to be caused by interactions between a gas cloud and a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think the explosion was caused by irregular gas or dust from a cloud orbiting the black hole and falling into the superdense object. It is stated that the explosion took place about 8 billion years ago.
With the Vera Rubin Observatory’s Ancient Space and Time Research center to be commissioned in the coming years, more events like this are expected to be discovered and learned more about these eruptions. It is predicted that the explanation of these events will also contribute to the elucidation of the formation of galaxies.
The former Space and Time Research Center will use the world’s largest digital camera to image the night sky every 15 seconds, providing astronomers around the world with a new dynamic view of an ever-changing universe. The team plans to collect X-ray data about the explosion, among other wavelengths of light, to better understand the origins of the massive explosion.
There are many more events like this happening in the universe, but for now we can only witness a small part of it. So what do you think about the biggest explosion in space so far? You can share your views with us in the comments section.