“This is Truly Extraordinary”: Astronomers Detect “Exceptionally Strong” Radio Signals from Deep Space Linked to the Death of a Star October 15, 2025
In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have detected a series of exceptionally strong and rapidly evolving radio signals coming from beyond the center of a distant galaxy. The rare cosmic signals link a tidal disruption event involving a black hole’s destruction of a star, revealing that these massive astronomical objects can remain active even when separated from galactic cores by significant distances.
The discovery, made by an international team led by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, challenges our ideas about where supermassive black holes are found in our universe and how they behave. The research, which also marks the first tidal disruption event (TDE) astronomers have logged that produced a bright radio emission from beyond the center of a galaxy, was supported by researchers with the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The unusually powerful and delayed radio signals produced by the event, dubbed AT 2024tvd, suggest the presence of processes behind how black holes eject material over long periods, which astronomers had not previously observed. Specifically, the research team behind the discovery says it marks the fastest-evolving instance involving a radio detection that has ever been associated with a TDE event. “This is truly extraordinary,” said Dr. Itai Sfaradi, who led the research and is the first author of a new study detailing the international team’s findings.
