Astronomers have discovered something very impressive giant black hole She devours a star, and they have nicknamed her “Scary Barbie”, partly due to her terrifying powers. Scientists have described it as one of the “most luminous, energetic, and long-lasting fleeting objects” ever found lurking in a forgotten corner of the night sky. Bhagya Subrayan, a Purdue University graduate student, told researchers that the black hole “grabbed and tore a star apart,” in a brutal process called “spaghetti.” The object is documented in Astrophysical Journal Letters randomly assigned to ZTF20abrbeie, leading to the creation of its modern nickname. While the “exit” kill event remained undetected for years among other telescopic data, such as the Purdue lab. The artificial intelligence engine, the Recommendation Engine for Intelligent Transient Tracing (REFITT), helped detect “scary” anomalies. “Scary Barbie” is the nickname astronomers are giving to one of the most energetic and brightest transits ever recorded: a supermassive black hole tearing apart a massive star.

REFITT “reviews millions of alerts” to help researchers find interesting phenomena in space, but for something hidden in plain sight, like Scary Barbie, the computer had no “blueprint” to look for.

The researchers described the event as “ridiculous.” “If you take a typical supernova and multiply it a thousand times, we still don’t know how bright it is, and supernovae are among the brightest objects in the sky,” said Danny Milisavljevic, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy. “This is the most energetic phenomenon I have encountered.” A team of “supernova researchers” found that Barbie’s terrifying luminosity “exceeds any observed or theoretical supernovae,” leading them to classify the event as a tidal disturbance, in which a star’s material is being destroyed by a hole. black. And just as Barbie kills a new job, Scary Barbie has killed the internet, sparking memes inspired by the movie’s moniker. A star is described as transient, meaning it can appear, disappear, or change dramatically in just hours or days, rather than centuries or millennia. While most transients only last weeks or months, this one lasted for more than 800 days, and data shows it could be visible for several more years, a duration “unlike anything we’ve seen before.” Supriyan He said. The target is “still in development,” according to the study, and the researchers hope continued monitoring using NASA’s James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes will eventually allow them to identify Barbie’s host galaxy. “Discoveries like this really open our eyes to the fact that we are still unraveling mysteries and exploring wonders in the universe, things that no one has seen before,” Milisavljevic said.

source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.10932