A supermassive black hole has punched a crater the size of 15 Milky Way galaxies into the universe hundreds and millions of light-years away. As of now, it is the biggest known explosion in our universe, and scientists state that they have never seen anything like this before.
"In some ways, this blast is similar to how the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 ripped off the top of the mountain," lead author Simona Giacintucci of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC said in a press release Thursday. "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."
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Researchers believe the origin of the explosion is a supermassive black hole in a large galaxy at the center of the Ophiuchus cluster. While black holes are known for dragging material inwards, they can also blast material and energy outwards.
More details about this explosive news over at CBS News.
(Video Credit: Chandra X-ray Observatory/ YouTube)