Astronomers have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe, originating from a super-massive black hole.
Scientists on Thursday reported that the blast came from a black hole in a cluster of galaxies 390 million light-years away.
The explosion was so large it carved out a crater in the hot gas that could hold 15 Milky Ways, said Simona Giacintucci of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, lead author of the report in the Astrophysical Journal.
That is five times bigger than the previous record holder.
Astronomers used NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory to make the discovery, along with a European space observatory and ground telescopes.
They believe the explosion came from the heart of the Ophiuchus cluster of thousands of galaxies — a large galaxy at the center contains a colossal black hole.
Black holes do not just draw matter in, they also blast out jets of material and energy.
The first hint of the giant explosion came in 2016. Chandra images of the Ophiuchus cluster revealed an unusual curved edge, but scientists ruled out an eruption given the amount of energy that would have been needed to carve out such a large cavity in the gas.
The two space observatories, along with radio data from telescopes in Australia and India, confirmed that the curvature was, indeed, part of a cavity.
“The radio data fit inside the X-rays like a hand in a glove,” said coauthor Maxim Markevitch of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “This is the clincher that tells us an eruption of unprecedented size occurred here.”
The blast is believed to be over — there are no signs of jets shooting from the black hole.
More observations are needed in other wavelengths to better understand what occurred, the research team said.
Meanwhile, Earth has acquired a second “mini-moon” about the size of a car, said astronomers who spotted the object.
The mass — about 1.9m to 3.5m in diameter — was observed by researchers Kacper Wierzchos and Teddy Pruyne at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona on the night of Feb. 15.
“BIG NEWS. Earth has a new temporarily captured object/Possible mini-moon called 2020 CD3,” likely to be a C-type asteroid, Wierzchos wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
The astronomer said it was a “big deal” as “this is just the second asteroid known to orbit Earth (after 2006 RH120, which was also discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey).”
Its route suggests it entered Earth’s orbit three years ago, he said.
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Minor Planet Center in an announcement said: “No link to a known artificial object has been found,” implying it was likely an asteroid captured by Earth’s gravity.
“Orbit integrations indicate that this object is temporarily bound to the Earth,” it said.
Entrepreneur Elon Musk said the car-sized object was not the Tesla Roadster he launched into space in 2018, which is now orbiting the sun.
“It’s not mine,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
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