Brightest Supernova Ever: A Violent Black Hole Eating Up Star?

The ASASSN-15lh was the "brightest supernova ever" recorded in the history of astronomy and ir. It immediately fascinated the astronomers who have witnessed it on 2015. However, looks may be deceiving as this supernova may actually be a black hole tearing up a passing star.

Astronomers discovered this in 2015 and claimed that this is the brightest supernova ever spotted since it is 20 times brighter than all the stars in the universe in combination. However, upon further investigation using the Hubble Space Telescope, the astronomers have observed that this "supernova" is not actually an exploding star, The Verge reports. They have assumed that this supernova may be something that they call a "magnetar," a kind of star that is incredibly dense and is collapsed, and can create magnetic fields.

But as the study progressed, they have reached more feasible anwers to their hanging questions. For that, the astronomers doubted if this was really a supernova or not and they got a conclusion. The ASASSN-15lh was not a luminous supernova, but a black hole that is ripping, gobbling a passing star.

After 10 months of focus research on the subject, astronomers from the Weizmann Institute of Science led by Giorgos Leloudas confirmed that the ASASSN-15lh was found in a location where supernovas are not supposed to be found. Leloudas told Space. com that it is not consistent with a usual expanding ball of gas, instead of cooling down and expanding after the explosion, it only got even warmer. And that is not a normal situation for supernovas.

The astronomers also found out that the ASASSN-15lh happened at the center of a galaxy, something that is usual for black holes. This supermassive black hole exploded resulting to an outburst about 3 million times bigger than the sun, the main reason why it looked like a bright supernova from afar. In addition, Leloudas shared that the components of this supermassive black hole were found to be of a low-mass star being disrupted and not a supernova exploding.

Tidal disruption events, according to Leloudas and his team, may reach extreme luminosities that are even brighter than formerly observed. However, they are still not fully certain that the ASASSN-15lh is a tidal disruption and further study should still be performed to know.