Astronomers have detected what would be the largest explosion in the universe ever known to date and since the outbreak of the Big Bang, which has taken place in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster . This is composed of stars of multiple colors, which indicate their different degrees of evolution, and which can be found with the naked eye from Earth.
However, the reality is that this eruption, which is already finished, has taken place about 390 million light years from the blue planet , and the size of the hole it has left in the universe is so huge that it could fit in the up to 15 galaxies equal to the Milky Way , according to the research director of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, Simona Giacintucci , head of the research that has made this finding.
Thus, according to the study published in The Astrophysical Journal , it is believed that the explosion was caused by a supermassive black hole located in the central galaxy of Ophiuchus. In fact, the European Space Agency indicated that the blast is linked to the “powerful jets released” by this supermassive black hole, which feeds on the gas that surrounds it, causing it to explode at times in large amounts of matter and energy. Specifically, this time it has been of such magnitude that it managed to break the gigantic amount of gas that is around it, which is now full of radio waves as a result of the acceleration of electrons -up to almost the speed of light- that caused the jet released.
Already in 2016, the scientific community had detected some unusual activity in the Ophiuchus cluster through observations collected by the Chandra telescope, but the cavity was so immense and would have required so much energy to form that, initially, not even they thought it was something feasible. Finally, thanks to a combination of X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Europe’s XMM-Newton space telescope , Australia’s Murchison Widefield Array and India’s Giant Metal Wave Telescope, the discovery.
