Astronomers have discovered traces of a star that was torn apart by a black hole but also remained undetected for many years. This is reported in a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and available on the arXiv website.

Researchers report the discovery of the transient ZTF20abrbeie, nicknamed “Terrible Barbie,” which alters the brightness of what turns out to be a black hole in the process of absorbing matter from a torn star. According to astronomers, the extinction of the celestial body was one of the brightest transients in the universe, but it is noteworthy that ZTF20abrbeie was not detected in the first observations in 2020.

The anomaly was only detected thanks to the artificial intelligence REFITT (Recommended Engine for Intelligent Transient Monitoring). AI analyzes data collected by various telescopes around the world, including the Zwicky Transient Facility instrument at Palomar Observatory in California. REFITT looks at millions of transition candidates and highlights the most interesting ones.

When REFITT identified ZTF20abrbeie as an object of interest to astronomers, the scientists analyzed spectrographic data from other telescopes, including the Leake Observatory in California and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. It turned out that the “scary Barbie” was several times brighter and more energetic than other transients previously recorded by scientists, and lasted much longer than usual. Most transients can be seen within weeks or months, but ZTF20abrbeie has been around for more than two years and may appear in the coming years.