Overview
- The event, AT2018hyz in a galaxy about 665 million light-years away, began as a 2018 tidal disruption of a small star by a roughly 5 million–solar-mass black hole.
- Radio emission that switched on years after the disruption has risen exponentially to about 50 times the 2019 baseline and has now persisted for six years.
- Findings published in the Astrophysical Journal draw on observations from the Very Large Array in New Mexico and radio telescopes in South Africa, led by Yvette Cendes.
- Modeling favors a single jet that was likely not pointed at Earth initially, with an energy outflow comparable to that of gamma-ray bursts.
- Researchers expect the radio brightness to peak later this year or in 2027 before a slow fade, and they are extending monitoring and searches for similar late-rising TDE jets.