科学家观测到黑洞耀斑“闪耀着十万亿个太阳的光芒”。
内容总结：
近日，天文学家观测到迄今最遥远、最剧烈的黑洞耀发事件，其亮度峰值相当于10万亿个太阳的总和，这一惊人发现刷新了人类对宇宙极端物理现象的认知。
该事件发生于一个距地球约100亿光年的活动星系核，即一个正在“吞噬”物质的黑洞。研究显示，这个黑洞质量约为太阳的5亿倍，其剧烈耀发很可能源于“潮汐瓦解事件”——当一颗恒星运动至黑洞附近时，被其巨大引力撕裂并吞噬。据估算，被吞噬恒星质量约为太阳的30倍。
加州理工学院研究团队通过兹威基暂现源观测设施首次于2018年捕获到该现象。项目首席科学家马修·格雷厄姆表示：“此次观测到的活动星系核特征前所未见。”相关研究成果已发表于《自然·天文学》期刊。这项发现为研究早期宇宙中黑洞的生长演化及物质相互作用提供了关键证据。
中文翻译：
科学家观测到一个黑洞耀斑，其亮度"与万亿个太阳比肩"。这简直是太阳成河。对人类而言，理解天文数字始终是项挑战——即便是百万或十亿的量级，也远超常人的感知范畴。请准备好拓展认知边界：科学家近日记录了迄今最遥远、最宏大的黑洞耀斑，相关数据令人震撼。
该现象发生于一个活动星系核（即处于吸积或进食状态的黑洞），其质量推测为太阳的5亿倍，距地球约100亿光年。研究人员认为此次耀斑由潮汐瓦解事件引发：活动星系核的引力可能将邻近恒星撕碎并吞噬。据团队估算，被吞噬的恒星质量约为太阳的30倍。加州理工学院对此发布的科普文章称："在最炽烈的时刻，这道耀斑迸发出万亿倍太阳的光芒。"
"这与我们见过的任何活动星系核都截然不同。"研究共同负责人马修·格雷厄姆表示。这位加州理工学院天文学研究教授兼任兹威基瞬变设施项目科学家，该机构与卡特琳娜实时巡天系统于2018年共同捕捉到这个特殊黑洞。关于该活动星系核及其惊人耀斑的研究已发表于《自然·天文学》期刊。
英文来源：
Scientists observed a black hole flare that 'shined with the light of 10 trillion suns'
That's a heck of a lot of suns.
It can be challenging for us humans to wrap our brains around really massive numbers. Even the scale of a million or billion is pretty hard for most people to really comprehend. So prepare yourself to think big, because scientists have recorded the largest and most distant black hole flare to date, and the numbers around it are pretty staggering.
The event occurred at an active galactic nucleus, also known as an accreting or feeding black hole, that they predict is 500 million times more massive than our sun and is located 10 billion light years away. The researchers suspect that this flare was caused by a tidal disruption event, where the gravity of the AGN may have pulled a nearby star closer and consumed it. The team estimates that the star eaten by the black hole had a mass 30 times that of our system's own sun. And according to the layperson blog post from Caltech about the event, "at its brightest, the flare shined with the light of 10 trillion suns."
"This is unlike any AGN we've ever seen," said Matthew Graham, who was a co-principal investigator on the study as well as a research professor of astronomy at Caltech and project scientist for the Zwicky Transient Facility, which first observed the black hole in question in 2018 along with the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey. The research about the AGN and its bonkers flare appeared in the journal Nature Astronomy.