Astronomers found A supermassive black hole that has been "burping" the remains of a disintegrated star for four years now, ejecting the most powerful relativistic jet ever observed. The AT2018hyz event began in 2018 and is increasing in intensity each year, promising to peak in 2027. Astronomers have never before observed such a prolonged process of accretion of stellar matter onto a black hole.
A tidal disruption event occurred in a different galaxy 665 million light-years away. At first, it seemed like a normal occurrence, but a few years later, the object suddenly came to life and began emitting radio waves with increasing intensity. This attracted the attention of scientists, who have been continuously monitoring the process ever since.
Study leader Yvette Cendes of the University of Oregon noted that the brightness of the radio emission has increased 50-fold since 2019 and continues to increase exponentially—an extremely rare occurrence for events that typically fade quickly. The energy emitted by the jet is comparable to that of gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. According to scientists' calculations, it is trillions or even hundreds of trillions of times greater than the energy emitted by the Death Star from Star Wars. It's a dubious comparison for science, but it is precisely this comparison that is cited in a press release on the university's website.
It's worth emphasizing that the unusual nature of the AT2018hyz event lies in its protracted nature: instead of rapidly fading, the black hole continues to feed on the star, emitting the resulting energy into space at speeds up to half the speed of light. Sendes noted, "This is truly extraordinary. I can't think of anything that has grown like this over such a long period of time."
According to predictions, radio emission will continue to increase and peak around 2027. Astronomers are continuing observations with radio telescopes to determine whether these predictions are confirmed and what exactly is causing such prolonged and powerful activity. The results of the study were published on February 5, 2026, in The Astrophysical Journal.
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Source: 3dnews.ru
