**Topic:** Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) are short-lived optical flares that occur when a black hole shreds a star, offering valuable insight into black hole demographics. This episode dives into the unusual characteristics and implications of the event AT2022zod.
**The Event:**
* AT2022zod was identified as an extreme, short-lived optical flare in an elliptical galaxy at a redshift of 0.11.
* The event lasted roughly 30 days, with a rapid rise time of approximately 13 days.
* It reached a high peak luminosity, positioning it at the extreme end compared to most supernovae.
**The Puzzle:**
* The host galaxy is estimated to contain a massive central Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH) of about $1.0 \times 10^8 M⊙$.
* However, AT2022zod’s short duration and luminosity are **inconsistent** with a TDE powered by this central SMBH.
* Modeling and comparison with other TDEs suggest AT2022zod originated from a lower-mass black hole within the system.
* The event is highly unlikely to be an AGN flare, as it was the only significant flaring activity detected across five years of monitoring. Alternative explanations like kilonovae, compact-binary mergers, and supernovae were also strongly disfavored by the light-curve analysis.
**The Conclusion:**
* Lightcurve modeling points to a Massive Black Hole (MBH) in the **intermediate-mass range** (IMBH, $10^4-10^6 M⊙$) as the source of the disruption.
* The most plausible origin proposed is the tidal disruption of a star by an MBH embedded in an **Ultra-Compact Dwarf galaxy (UCD)** acquired by the host galaxy.
* This discovery highlights the need for flexible search strategies to accommodate unusual events, especially as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time begins.
**Article Reference:**
* Kristen C. Dage et al. (for the COIN collaboration). "AT2022zod: An Unusual Tidal Disruption Event in an Elliptical Galaxy at Redshift 0.11." Draft version December 3, 2025.
Acknowledements: Podcast prepared with Google/NotebookLM. Illustration credits: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.