KATHMANDU: A record-breaking explosion created by a black hole 390 million light-years away has been discovered by astronomers, CNN reported.
“In some ways, this blast is similar to how the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980 ripped off the top of the mountain,” CNN quoted lead author Simona Giacintucci as saying.
“A key difference is that you could fit fifteen Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster’s hot gas,” Giacintucci said.
According to the report, the explosion originated from the center of the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. Clusters of galaxies are the largest-known structures in the universe. Gravity holds these groups containing thousands of galaxies together.
Astronomers believe a supermassive black hole at the heart of a large galaxy towards the center of the cluster is responsible for the explosion.
Black holes don’t just gobble up material, they blast it out as well — usually in the form of jets or beams of material.
(With inputs from Agencies)