Overview
- New analyses published February 5 in The Astrophysical Journal report that AT2018hyz’s radio emission has climbed to roughly 50 times its earlier measured brightness and is still rising.
- AT2018hyz stems from a 2018 tidal disruption event about 665 million light-years away in which a supermassive black hole tore apart a star.
- Observations with the VLA in New Mexico and MeerKAT in South Africa indicate the emission comes from a highly collimated, likely relativistic jet that became observable as it broadened and slowed.
- Calculated energetics rival those of gamma-ray bursts, with estimates reaching up to about 5×10^55 ergs.
- The team expects the signal to keep strengthening with a possible peak around 2027 and is extending multiwavelength monitoring and archival searches for similarly delayed jets.