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title: Astronomers Explain What Caused the Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Seen | TIME
description: It was only last October that telescopes spotted a gamma ray burst—caused by the collapse of a black hole—that was so powerful astronomers quickly dubbed it BOAT, for “Brightest of all Time.” That was a fair enough nickname for such a sensational emission—for a little while anyway. But BOAT has just been busted to second most powerful.
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og:title: Astronomers Explain What Caused the Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Seen
og:description: It was only last October that telescopes spotted a gamma ray burst—caused by the collapse of a black hole—that was so powerful astronomers quickly dubbed it BOAT, for “Brightest of all Time.” That was a fair enough nickname for such a sensational emission—for a little while anyway. But BOAT has just been busted to second most powerful.
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twitter:title: Astronomers Explain What Caused the Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Seen
twitter:description: It was only last October that telescopes spotted a gamma ray burst—caused by the collapse of a black hole—that was so powerful astronomers quickly dubbed it BOAT, for “Brightest of all Time.” That was a fair enough nickname for such a sensational emission—for a little while anyway. But BOAT has just been busted to second most powerful.
twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ETaNFvnT/poster.jpg?width=720
---

* Science

# Astronomers Explain What Caused the Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Seen

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ETaNFvnT.m3u8" -->
## Video: Astronomers Explain What Caused the Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Seen

[Watch (HLS stream): Astronomers Explain What Caused the Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Seen](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ETaNFvnT.m3u8) (1:42)

![Astronomers Explain What Caused the Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Seen](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ETaNFvnT/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2023-05-12. It was only last October that telescopes spotted a gamma ray burst—caused by the collapse of a black hole—that was so powerful astronomers quickly dubbed it BOAT, for “Brightest of all Time.” That was a fair enough nickname for such a sensational emission—for a little while anyway. But BOAT has just been busted to second most powerful._


---

Oct 11, 2023 5:27 PM UTC

---

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### NASA Satellite Captures Brightest Space Explosion Ever Recorded

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### Looking Through The World's Largest Telescope

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