The explosion of a massive star locked in a deadly orbit with a black hole has been discovered with the help of artificial intelligence used by an astronomy collaboration led by the University of California, Santa Cruz, that hunts for stars shortly after they explode as supernovae.
The explosion of a massive star locked in a deadly orbit with a black hole has been discovered with the help of artificial intelligence used by an astronomy collaboration led by the University of California, Santa Cruz, that hunts for stars shortly after they explode as supernovae.
The blast, named SN 2023zkd, was first discovered in July 2023 with the help of a new AI algorithm designed to scan for unusual explosions in real time. The early alert allowed astronomers to begin follow-up observations immediately—an essential step in capturing the full story of the explosion.
By the time the explosion was over, it had been observed by a large set of telescopes, both on the ground and from space. That included two telescopes at the Haleakalāa Observatory in Hawaiʻi used by the Young Supernova Experiment (YSE) based at UC Santa Cruz.
Read More: University of California – Santa Cruz
Image: Artistic depiction of the explosive interaction between the black hole and the massive nearby star (blue). As the separation between the star and the black hole decreased, the black hole's intense gravity pulled gas and dust off of the star into a disk. Before the star was able to swallow the black hole, gravitational stress from the black hole triggered the star's explosion. Collisions between the stellar explosion and shells of material from earlier interactions located above and below the disk, powered a dramatic re-brightening event. (Credit: Melissa Weiss/CfA)
