A very luminous jet from the disruption of a star by a massive black hole

Understand

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are bursts of electromagnetic energy released when supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centers of galaxies violently disrupt a star that passes too close.

• TDEs provide a new window to study accretion onto SMBHs; in some rare cases, this accretion leads to launching of a relativistic jet, but the necessary conditions are not fully understood.
• The best studied jetted TDE to date is Swift J1644+57, which was discovered in gamma-rays, but was too obscured by dust to be seen at optical wavelengths.
• Here we report the optical discovery of AT2022cmc, a rapidly fading source at cosmological distance (redshift z=1.19325) whose unique lightcurve transitioned into a luminous plateau within days.