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from the just-demolition-work-for-the-intergalactic-superhighway dept.
Astronomers detect biggest explosion in the history of the Universe - ICRAR
Scientists studying a distant galaxy cluster have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the Universe since the Big Bang.
[...] It released five times more energy than the previous record holder.
Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said the event was extraordinarily energetic.
"We've seen outbursts in the centres of galaxies before but this one is really, really massive," she said.
"And we don't know why it's so big.
"But it happened very slowly—like an explosion in slow motion that took place over hundreds of millions of years."
The explosion occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, about 390 million light-years from Earth.
It was so powerful it punched a cavity in the cluster plasma—the super-hot gas surrounding the black hole.
Lead author of the study Dr Simona Giacintucci, from the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States, said the blast was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which ripped the top off the mountain.
"The difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster's hot gas," she said.
[...] The discovery was made using four telescopes; NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA's XMM-Newton, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India.
Journal Reference:
Giacintucci, S., Markevitch, M., Johnston-Hollitt, M., et al. Discovery of a giant radio fossil in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, (DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab6a9d)
With apologies to Marvin the Martian:
Earth-shattering kaboom? Nope, that's not it.
Sun-shattering kaboom? Think larger.
Galaxy-shattering kaboom? Still way too small.
Galaxy-Cluster-shattering Kaboom! Now you've got it!
Don't Panic!
(Score: 2) by pdfernhout on Monday June 01 2020, @03:01PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ophiuchi_Hotline [wikipedia.org]
"Human expansion to the Eight Worlds has been aided by a broadcast of information from outside the Solar System, named "The Ophiuchi hotline" after the constellation from which it appears to originate."
But, yeah, that "Silly Asses" Isaac Asimov story on the folly of nuclear arms was probably better in some ways, especially for conciseness...
As is the Einstein quote:
"The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking ... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. (Albert Einstin, 1945)"
A quote which helped inspire my sig on the iron of tools of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity and much of my writings... But I can think now it may also connect back to reading Asimov's Silly Asses story long ago...
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.