UK Astronomers Detect Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Witnessed - Reports

A team of astronomers from UK's Southampton University spotted the largest cosmic explosion ever seen at a distance of about 8bn light years away, which is estimated to be more than 10 times brighter than any known supernova, UK media reported on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2023) A team of astronomers from UK's Southampton University spotted the largest cosmic explosion ever seen at a distance of about 8bn light years away, which is estimated to be more than 10 times brighter than any known supernova, UK media reported on Friday.

"We have estimated it is a fireball 100 times the size of the solar system with a brightness about 2tn times the sun's," Philip Wiseman, an astronomer leading the observation, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

The explosion, known as AT2021lwx, occurred three years ago and was detected in 2020 by the Zwicky Transient Facility in California, but went largely unnoticed until it gradually got brighter, according to the report.

"In three years, this event has released about 100 times as much energy as the sun will in its 10bn-year lifetime," the astronomer was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

The flare-up has reportedly released much more energy than any other burst of gamma rays, but is not the brightest ever witnessed as this title goes to GRB 221009A, spotted last year.

The scientists believe that the explosion is the result of a giant cloud of gas, possibly thousands of times larger than the sun, being absorbed by a supermassive black hole.