Astronomy:AT 2021lwx
AT 2021lwx (also known as ZTF20abrbeie or "Scary Barbie"[2]) is the most energetic non-quasar optical transient astronomical event ever observed, with a peak luminosity of 7 × 1045 erg per second (erg s−1) and a total radiated energy between 9.7 × 1052 erg to 1.5 × 1053 erg over three years.[2][1] Despite being lauded as the largest explosion ever, GRB 221009A was both more energetic and brighter. It was first identified in imagery obtained on 13 April 2021 by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) astronomical survey[3] and is believed to be due to the accretion of matter into a super massive black hole (SMBH) heavier than one hundred million solar masses (M☉).[2][1][4] It has a redshift of z = 0.9945,[1] which would place it at a distance of about eight billion light-years from earth,[4] and is located in the constellation Vulpecula.[5] No host galaxy has been detected.[2][1]
Forced photometry of earlier ZTF imagery showed AT 2021lwx had already begun brightening by 16 June 2020, as ZTF20abrbeie. It was also detected independently in data from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) as ATLAS20bkdj, and the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) as PS22iin. At the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, X-ray observations were made with the X-ray Telescope and ultraviolet, with the Ultraviolet-Optical Telescope (UVOT).[2][1]
The inferred mass of the SMBH, based on the light to mass ratio, is about 1 hundred million - 1 billion solar masses, given the observed brightness. However, the theoretical limit for a black hole to tidally disrupt a solar-mass star is 1 hundred million solar masses. If AT 2021lwx is a tidal disruption event, the disrupted star must have been much more massive than the sun.[6] Subrayan et al. originally interpreted it to be a tidal disruption event between an SMBH (~108 M☉) and a massive star (~14 M☉).[2] Wiseman et al. reached a similar conclusion, but given the low probability of such an event, posited another scenario: "the sudden accretion of a large amount of gas, potentially a giant molecular cloud"[1] (~1,000 M☉),[7] onto an SMBH (>108 M☉).[1][8]
See also
- Ophiuchus Supercluster eruption, a 5 × 1061-erg event that may have occurred up to 240 million years ago, revealed by a giant radio fossil
- MS 0735.6+7421, a 1061-erg eruption that has been occurring for the last 100 million years
- GRB 080916C, an 8.8 × 1054-erg gamma-ray burst seen in 2008[9]
- GRB 221009A, a 1.2 × 1055-erg gamma-ray burst seen in 2023[10]
- Astronomy:Hypernova
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Wiseman, p.; Wang, Y.; Hönig, S.; Castero-Segura, N.; Clark, P.; Frohmaier, C.; Fulton, M. D.; Leloudas, G. et al. (11 April 2023). "Multiwavelength observations of the extraordinary accretion event AT 2021lwx". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 522 (3): 3992–4002. doi:10.1093/mnras/stad1000.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Subrayan, Bhagya M.; Milisavljevic, Dan; Chornock, Ryan; Margutti, Raffaella; Alexander, Kate D.; Ramakrishnan, Vandana; Duffell, Paul C.; Dickinson, Danielle A. et al. (2023-05-10). "Scary Barbie: An Extremely Energetic, Long-duration Tidal Disruption Event Candidate without a Detected Host Galaxy at z = 0.995". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 948 (2): L19. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/accf1a. ISSN 2041-8205. Bibcode: 2023ApJ...948L..19S.
- ↑ J. Nordin, V. Brinnel, J. van Santen, A. Gal-Yam, O. Yaron, S. Schulze (10 May 2021). "Discovery certificate for object 2021lwx". IAU Transient Name Server.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Overbye, Dennis (12 May 2023). "The Biggest Explosion in the Cosmos Just Keeps Going - For three years, telescopes have monitored "one of the most luminous" events ever: a supermassive black hole consuming a gigantic cloud of interstellar gas.". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. https://archive.today/20230512191540/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/science/astronomy-black-hole.html. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
- ↑ "Astronomers reveal the largest cosmic explosion ever seen". 5 November 2023. https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/astronomers-reveal-largest-cosmic-explosion-ever-seen.
- ↑ Mockler, Brenna; Guillochon, James; Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico (2019-02-20). "Weighing Black Holes Using Tidal Disruption Events" (in en-us). The Astrophysical Journal 872 (2): 151. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab010f. Bibcode: 2019ApJ...872..151M.
- ↑ "This Is The Largest Cosmic Explosion In The Universe Ever Seen" (in en). 2023-05-11. https://www.iflscience.com/this-is-the-largest-cosmic-explosion-in-the-universe-ever-seen-68893.
- ↑ "'Terrifying': Why the universe's largest cosmic explosion is called 'Scary Barbie'" (in en-US). https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/05/12/largest-space-explosion-scary-barbie-black-hole/70212322007/.
- ↑ Fermi LAT and Fermi GBM Collaborations (27 March 2009). "Fermi Observations of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from GRB 080916C". Science 323 (5922): 1688–1693. doi:10.1126/science.1169101. PMID 19228997. Bibcode: 2009Sci...323.1688A.
- ↑ Burns, Eric; Svinkin, Dmitry; Fenimore, Edward; Kann, D. Alexander; Agüí Fernández, José Feliciano; Frederiks, Dmitry; Hamburg, Rachel; Lesage, Stephen et al. (2023-03-01). "GRB 221009A: The BOAT". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 946 (1): L31. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/acc39c. ISSN 2041-8205. Bibcode: 2023ApJ...946L..31B.
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