The Digester

AT2024wpp, nicknamed the Whippet, outshone previous fast blue optical transients and new multiwavelength observations match a stripped massive star being consumed by a black hole, with a rare late-time X-ray flare likely from fallback material.

AT2024wpp, nicknamed the Whippet, is the brightest fast blue optical transient observed, about 10 times brighter than AT2018cow.
The flash was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Observatory in late 2024 and followed up with Swift X-Ray Telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array.
Spectra indicate temperatures more than six times the Sun's surface and ejecta moving at about 0.2 times the speed of light.
About a month after the initial burst, a separate X-ray flare appeared, the first such late-time X-ray feature seen in an FBOT.
Jialian Liu and collaborators interpret the data as a Wolf-Rayet star of more than 30 solar masses being devoured by a roughly 15 solar mass black hole, with fallback material causing the X-ray flare.
The event is located in a young galaxy where short-lived massive stars are common, which supports the Wolf-Rayet plus black hole scenario.

Brightest FBOT 'Whippet' likely a black hole eating a stripped massive star

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