# Black Hole Shreds Massive Star in Most Energetic Explosion Ever Recorded

*2026-08-18 14:02 UTC · Science · 1 min read*

> A black hole tore apart a massive star in the most energetic tidal disruption event ever recorded, and months later scientists spotted signs that part of it may have survived.

Astronomers led by Daniel Perley at Liverpool John Moores University have documented a black hole tearing apart a massive companion star in an event nicknamed "the Whippet" -- the most energetic tidal disruption ever recorded. The explosion, catalogued as AT2024wpp, briefly released as much energy as 400 billion suns, with a shock wave racing outward at one-fifth the speed of light.

Co-author Anna Ho of Cornell University first spotted the event using the Zwicky Transient Facility; distance measurements by R. Michael Rich (UCLA) and Yu-Jing Qin (Caltech) confirmed it belongs to the rare class of Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients. Perley said the team believes the flare came from "a black hole merging with a massive companion star, shredding it into a disk that feeds the black hole" -- a blast "many times more energetic than any similar event."

Months after the initial shock wave faded, researchers spotted helium racing toward Earth at more than 6,000 kilometers per second, hinting that some dense structure -- perhaps the star's core or a third companion -- survived the destruction.

## Sources

- [sciencedaily.com](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260814235849.htm)
- [scitechdaily.com](https://scitechdaily.com/black-hole-shredded-a-massive-star-in-the-most-powerful-stellar-explosion-ever-seen/)

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TechTools News · https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/2211-black-hole-shreds-massive-star-in-most-energetic-explosion-ever-recorded
Česká verze: https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/2284-cerna-dira-roztrhala-mohutnou-hvezdu-v-dosud-nejenergetictejsi-explozi