Researchers on Nov. 4, 2025 announced the detection of the brightest supermassive black hole flare yet recorded, a flare that at its peak shone with the light of roughly 10 trillion suns and is traced to a tidal disruption event around Active Galactic Nucleus J2245+3743. The outburst was first identified in 2018 by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at Palomar Observatory and has been monitored as it brightened rapidly, peaked, and slowly faded over the ensuing years.
Analysis of the multi-year observations indicates the flare resulted from a star being torn apart by the gravitational forces near the active galactic nucleus J2245+3743. The source was observed to brighten by a factor of about 40 over a period of a few months and reached a peak luminosity roughly 30 times its prior level before entering a prolonged decay phase. Researchers report that the event remains detectable and is expected to be observable for several more years, providing an extended window for follow-up study.
The source lies at cosmological distances of roughly 10 billion light-years, placing the event in an epoch when the universe was substantially younger. At that scale, cosmological time dilation stretches both the arrival times of photons and the apparent duration of transient phenomena; the stretching helps make long-lived surveys such as ZTF particularly effective at discovering and tracking distant, slowly evolving events in the early universe. The 2018 detection by ZTF exemplifies how repeated wide-field imaging over many years can reveal rare, extreme outbursts that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Since the initial discovery, observing campaigns have tracked the flare’s evolution across months and years. The rapid brightening phase, followed by a high peak and an extended decay, matches expectations for a tidal disruption event occurring in or near an active galactic nucleus, where inflowing material can produce luminous flares as it is heated and accreted. The magnitude of this particular flare, described by the announcing researchers as the brightest supermassive black hole flare observed to date, makes it a notable object for testing models of how disrupted stellar debris radiates and how active nuclei respond to sudden accretion episodes.
The continued detectability of the flare opens opportunities for coordinated observations with ground-based facilities. Researchers have indicated plans for follow-up using ground telescopes to monitor the fading light and to obtain spectroscopic and photometric data that can constrain the physical processes at play. Teams are also conducting archival searches within the ZTF dataset to look for earlier activity or analogous events that might clarify how often such extreme flares occur and whether there are characteristic signatures preceding or following the peak.
Looking ahead, the research community anticipates additional data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory once its survey operations deliver imaging of the relevant field. The Rubin Observatory’s deep, wide, fast survey capabilities are expected to substantially increase the discovery rate of distant transients and provide high-cadence light curves that complement ZTF’s long-term coverage. Observers say the combination of archival ZTF records, ongoing ground-based monitoring, and forthcoming Rubin data will help characterize the event’s later-time behavior, test theoretical models for tidal disruption in active nuclei, and place this flare in context among other luminous transients at cosmological distances.
The identification and prolonged monitoring of this flare underscore the role of long-term, wide-field surveys in uncovering rare, energetic phenomena from the distant universe. With the event still fading and remaining within reach of current telescopes for years to come, researchers plan continued observation and archival work to refine understanding of how such extreme flares arise and what they reveal about supermassive black hole feeding processes in the early cosmos.