Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2026

26 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 ASTRO PUBLISHING by NRAO An intermediate-mass black hole tears apart a star A stronomers using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) have detected an extraordinary burst of radio light from a rare cos- mic event in which an intermediate- mass black hole tears apart a star, revealing what appears to be the off-axis afterglow of a powerful jet. The event, known as AT2019ijn, first appeared as a bright blue flash in optical surveys, rising to peak bright- ness in just a few days before fading much more slowly than similar tran- sients usually do. When astronomers later examined radio observations, they found something even more unusual: the radio emission kept brightening for nearly two years and reached a luminosity far beyond that seen in typical stellar explosions at similar phases, followed by a slow decay over at least four years. The researchers concluded that the most