A New Kind of Space Explosion Reveals the Birth of a Black Hole

In 2018, astronomers were shocked to find a bizarre explosion in a galaxy 200 million light-years away. It wasn’t like any normal supernova seen before—it was both briefer and brighter. The event was given an official designation, AT2018cow, but it soon went by a more jovial nickname: the Cow. The short-lived event—known as a transient—defied […]