Article via https://www.france24.com on 12 May 2023
Astronomers said on Friday they have identified the “largest” cosmic explosion ever observed, a fireball 100 times the size of our Solar System that suddenly began blazing in the distant universe more than three years ago.
The explosion, called AT2021lwx, is not the brightest flash ever observed in the universe.
It was only when astronomers, including Wiseman, looked at it through more powerful telescopes that they realised what they had on their hands.
By analysing different wavelengths of light, they worked out that the explosion was roughly eight billion light years away.
The only somewhat comparable bright cosmic event is a quasar, when supermassive black holes swallow huge amounts of gas in the centre of galaxies.