Scientists launch AI challenge to find black hole-star collisions using simulated data from a major new sky survey.

Scientists from Queen’s University Belfast and Leiden Observatory are launching a public challenge to identify stars torn apart by black holes, known as tidal disruption events, using simulated data from the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time at the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile. With the survey expected to generate around 10 million sky alerts each night, researchers are turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze the massive data flood. The project, hosted on Kaggle, invites tech-savvy individuals with AI or machine learning experience to help develop tools that can detect these rare events, offering a 1,000 euro top prize. No formal astronomy expertise is required, and the initiative aims to improve detection methods and deepen understanding of black hole behavior in the era of big data astronomy.