If you ever wondered what would happen if you were to throw a black hole at a star, well astronomers now have an answer: it goes "boom" in a truly distinctive way. Researchers have spotted an interesting supernova event that had never-before-seen behavior. A study revealed the involvement of a black hole and its interaction with a massive old star, leading to the catastrophic and very bright demise. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The event was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility in July 2023 and given the name SN 2023zkd. It was flagged by a new artificial intelligence algorithm right after the event, which allowed for telescopes in space and on the ground to quickly and consistently follow up on the explosion.

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