Black Hole's Energetic Awakening Captured by Astronomers

Astronomers searching for the counterpart of a gravitational wave event stumbled upon an incredibly bright and long-lasting transient event. The event, originating from a supermassive black hole named J221951, has been ongoing for 10 months and is estimated to have released over 10 times the energy the Sun will release in 10 billion years. The event could be either a tidal disruption event, where a star or gas cloud is ripped apart by the black hole's gravitational pull, or the initial phases of an active galactic nucleus. Further research is needed to determine the cause of this unusual event.