The All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae supernova survey detected in 2015 an event – ASAAAN-15lh – classified as the brightest supernova in history. Now, thanks to new observations by a team of astronomers led by Giorgos Leloudas from the Weizmann Institute of Sciences (Israel) and the Center for Dark Cosmology (Denmark), they suggest that this superluminous event is actually a black hole rotating at high speed while engulfs a nearby star.
The experts carried out numerous observations with different telescopes in the distant galaxy in which the explosion took place (about 4,000 million light years from Earth) concluding that “the explanation does not fit with an extraordinarily bright supernova. Our results indicate that the event was probably caused by a supermassive black hole that rotates at high speed as it destroys a low-mass star ”, clarifies Leloudas, leader of the work.
Thus, the star similar to our Sun would have been torn apart, “spaghetti” due to the enormous gravitational forces of the supermassive black hole located in the center of the galaxy, causing both the remains and the heat generated by the accretion, a gigantic explosion of light with the appearance of a supernova. The name of the event is “tidal disruption event” something that we have barely been able to observe in the universe a dozen times.
“There are several independent aspects to the observations that suggest that this event was, in effect, a disturbance of the tide and not a superluminous supernova”, explains Morgan Fraser, co-author of the study published by Nature Astronomy.
For example, the data revealed that the event went through three distinct phases during the 10-month follow-up observations. All the information extracted tilts the event towards a tidal interruption rather than a superluminous supernova.
“Even with all the data collected we cannot say with 100% certainty that the ASASSN-15lh event was a tidal interruption event, but it is by far the most likely explanation ,” concludes Leloudas.
