'J221951 is one of the most extreme examples yet of a black hole taking us by surprise.'
The flare was tracked to the core of a galaxy and was caused by a supermassive black hole rapidly feasting on surrounding material after being quiet for a while.First, it is likely released by a tidal disruption event, which occurs when a star passes from the vicinity of a supermassive black hole. The second hypothesis is that it is caused by an active galactic nucleus, which is likely 'changing status' from dormant to active.
"In the future, we will be able to obtain important clues that help distinguish between the tidal disruption event and active galactic nuclei scenarios. For instance, if J221951 is associated with an AGN turning on we may expect it to stop fading and to increase again in brightness, while if J221951 is a tidal disruption event we would expect it to continue to fade.
The findings were presented at the 2023 National Astronomy Meeting in Cardiff on Tuesday, July 4. The study will be published in
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