Astronomers have spotted one of the strangest space explosions ever recorded — a massive star blowing up while trying to swallow a black hole.
This rare cosmic drama may help explain mysterious types of supernovae that have puzzled scientists for years.
The discovery was made by researchers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as part of the Young Supernova Experiment.
Their findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal, are based on observations of an explosion called SN 2023zkd.
The event was first detected in July 2023 by the Zwicky Transient Facility in California. A new AI system, built to spot unusual cosmic blasts in real time, flagged SN 2023zkd early.
This early alert allowed astronomers to start observing it right away, using telescopes on the ground and in space, capturing the explosion from start to finish.
Scientists believe the most likely explanation is that the massive star was in a close orbit with a black hole.
Over time, they spiraled closer together. The star eventually became so stressed by the black hole’s gravity that it exploded in a supernova while partly swallowing its companion.
Another possibility is that the black hole tore the star apart entirely before it could explode on its own. In both cases, the result would be a single, larger black hole left behind.
SN 2023zkd is about 730 million light-years from Earth. At first, it appeared to be a normal supernova — a single bright flash that fades over time. But months later, something unexpected happened: it brightened again.
This rare “double peak” made scientists dig deeper into older telescope data, revealing that the system had been slowly getting brighter for more than four years before the explosion.
This long-term activity suggested the star had been shedding material before its death. The first bright peak came from the blast wave hitting low-density gas nearby.
The second, delayed brightening happened when the debris collided with a thick, disk-shaped cloud around the star. Astronomers think this strange behavior was caused by the intense pull of the nearby black hole.
“This is one of the clearest signs we’ve seen of a massive star interacting with a companion before it explodes,” said V. Ashley Villar, a co-author of the study.
With powerful new observatories like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory about to begin scanning the entire sky every few nights, scientists expect to find more of these rare explosions. AI-powered detection systems will help catch them as they happen, allowing researchers to connect the dots between a star’s life and its dramatic end.
“This is just the beginning,” said lead author Alexander Gagliano. “We’re now able to witness these events in real time, which is incredibly exciting for understanding how stars live and die.”
Source: Harvard and Smithsonian.
