Scientists witnessed one of the most unprecedented cosmic events as a supermassive black hole, located approximately 300 million light-years away from Earth, experienced one of the most powerful X-ray bursts.

Another unparalleled cosmic event has left scientists amazed. At the core of a galaxy located approximately 300 million light-years away from Earth, a supermassive black hole that was recently inactive was captured by astronomers as it underwent one of the largest and most intense X-ray bursts seen from such a cosmic titan.

According to a report in Naftemporiki, this active phase signals the awakening of the supermassive black hole, which devours surrounding matter and erupts with short-lived flaring events called Quasi-Periodic Eruptions (QPE). The black hole has remained silent for decades and is now dominating the region known as the “active galactic nucleus” or “AGN” at the center of its galaxy.

The team named this cosmic AGN entity “Ansky.” Ansky’s awakening was initially detected towards the end of 2019, alerting astronomers who followed its development with NASA’s Swift X-ray space telescope.

In February 2024, astronomers started to witness the black hole powering Ansky erupting with remarkably regular intervals of flares. This provided a unique opportunity to observe the explosion of a supermassive black hole in real-time.

“RELEASING HUNDREDS OF TIMES MORE ENERGY” Johin Chakraborty from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a member of the research team using a series of ground-based and space-based telescopes and missions to observe the giant black hole and collect data, stated: “The X-ray bursts from Ansky are ten times larger and ten times brighter than what we typically see in a QPE. Each of these bursts releases hundreds of times more energy than what we have observed elsewhere.”

Chakraborty also noted that Ansky’s bursts exhibited the longest period observed so far, lasting approximately 4.5 days, saying, “This pushes the limits of our models and challenges our current ideas on how these X-ray flashes are formed.”