A rare cosmic event unfolded in May 2025 when NASA’s Swift Observatory detected a black hole devouring a star on the outskirts of a distant galaxy, marking the first confirmed tidal disruption event (TDE) observed so far from a galaxy’s core.
The event, first flagged in November 2025 by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), involved a supermassive black hole located 750 million light-years from Earth. Unlike previous TDEs, which were typically found in galaxy cores, this one occurred 30,000 light-years from its host galaxy’s center. The black hole, weighing about a million times the Sun’s mass, shredded a star, producing a flare brighter than 10 billion suns.
A Rare Cosmic Event Unfolds
The TDE was initially detected by ZTF’s AI algorithm, which sifted through half a million nightly celestial flashes to identify the anomaly. Robert Stein, a research fellow at The University of Maryland, College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of the study, called the event one of just a couple that have been confirmed so far
outside galaxy cores. The flare outshone its host galaxy in ultraviolet light for months, with NASA’s Swift Observatory confirming its origin via X-ray and ultraviolet data. abc13.com notes the black hole’s location—30,000 light-years from the galaxy’s center—defied prior models, which assumed supermassive black holes resided exclusively in galactic cores.
Jonathan Carney, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, led the spectral analysis that confirmed the event’s nature. The combination of all this data helped us rule out other explanations and confidently say it’s a tidal disruption event, despite its strange location,
he said. Gizmodo highlights that the finding could pave the way for the detection of more wandering black holes,
which are otherwise invisible.
The Role of AI in Detection
The ZTF’s AI algorithm, developed by Stein’s team, was critical in identifying the TDE. Out of the half million flashes ZTF detects each night, our new artificial intelligence algorithm automatically recognized a flare that looked a lot like a tidal disruption event, despite its unusual location in the outskirts of a galaxy,
Stein explained.
ZTF, a survey conducted by the Palomar Observatory in Southern California, scans the northern sky every two days, capturing transient events. With this discovery, which is one of just a couple that have been confirmed so far, we’ve validated a new technique and can use it to hunt for more,
Stein said.
Implications for Black Hole Research
The find challenges existing assumptions about supermassive black holes.
The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, also highlights the importance of multi-wavelength observations. While ZTF detected the initial flare, NASA’s Swift Observatory provided X-ray and ultraviolet data, and the SOAR telescope in Chile analyzed the event’s spectrum.
As Stein noted, With this discovery, which is one of just a couple that have been confirmed so far, we’ve validated a new technique and can use it to hunt for more.
