Two trillion times brighter than the sun for three years, astronomers have observed the largest cosmic explosion

CTOnews.com, May 17 (Xinhua) astronomers recently observed the largest cosmic explosion in history using the Zwiki transient device (ZTF) and the asteroid Earth impact warning system (ATLAS).

The area affected by the explosion is 100 times that of the solar system, the brightness produced is 2 trillion times brighter than the solar peak, and can be observed for three years after the explosion.

The explosion occurred in AT2021lwx, 8 billion light-years from Earth.

"We were searching for a supernova, stumbled upon this, and then tagged it with a search algorithm," said Dr. Philip Wiseman, lead author in charge of cosmic explosion research.

Wiseman says most tidal collapse events (Tidal Disruption) or supernova events last only a few months at most, and then disappear and lose their brightness. The observed cosmic explosion dates back to 2020 and has lasted for three years.

CTOnews.com attaches a link to the report paper here, which interested users can click to read.