Astronomers have discovered a “scary Barbie” supermassive black hole tearing apart a massive star in a “terrifying” spaghetti event

Astronomers have discovered something very impressive Giant black hole She devours a star – and they have nicknamed her “Scary Barbie”, in part because of 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, graduate student at Purdue University, He said Researchers believe the black hole “grabbed and ripped a star apart,” in a brutal process called “spaghettieff. The object is documented in Astrophysical Journal Lettersrandomly assigned to ZTF20abrbeie, which led to the creation of his modern nickname.

While the “exit” death event lain undetected for years among other telescopic data, such as the Purdue lab artificial intelligence The engine — the Recommendation Engine for Intelligent Transient Tracing (REFITT) — helped detect “terrifying” anomalies.

REFITT “combs through millions of alerts” to help researchers find interesting phenomena in space — but for something hidden in plain sight, like Scary Barbie, the computer didn’t have a “model” 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, assistant professor of physics and astronomy. “This is the most energetic phenomenon I have ever encountered.”

A team of “supernova investigators” found that Barbie’s frightening luminosity “exceeds any observed or theoretical supernova,” prompting them to classify the event as Tidal disturbancein which material from a star is being blown apart by a black hole.

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, which means it can appear, disappear, or change dramatically over just hours or days — rather than centuries or millennia. While the majority of transients only last for weeks or months, this one lasted more than 800 days – and data shows it could be visible for many more years, a duration “unlike anything we’ve seen before”, Supriyan He said.

The goal is “still under development,” according to the study, and the researchers hope Continuing monitoring Using NASA’s James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes will eventually allow them to pinpoint 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 no one has seen before,” Milisavljevic said.