Astronomers at the Australia-based International Center for Radio Astronomy Research have announced the discovery of the most powerful energy surge since the Big Bang in Ophiuchus constellation. This was reported in The Astrophysical Journal.
Back in 2016, scientists drew attention to an unusual cavity in the center of the constellation, marked by the telescope of the Chandra Space X-ray Observatory. This site was so huge that at that time none of the scientists could have imagined that it was formed by an explosion: the size of this area corresponded to the volume of 15 galaxies like the Milky Way.
Subsequently, ground-based observatories were connected to the study: a low-frequency (72-240 MHz) Murchison Widefield Array radio receiver (Australia) and a Giant Metrewave radio telescope (India), as well as the XMM-Newton space X-ray telescope of the European Space Agency.
A combination of data obtained in the radio and X-ray ranges confirmed that a giant explosion occurred at a distance of 390 million light-years from Earth, in the center of the constellation Ophiuchus.
“Energy emissions in the centers of galaxies have been observed before, but this one turned out to be incredibly powerful. At the same time, the process proceeded very slowly, like an explosion in slow motion, lasting hundreds of millions of years, ”said Melina Johnston-Hollitt, a professor at the Australian University of Curtin.
The recorded explosion turned out to be five times stronger than the energy emission in the galactic cluster MS0735.6 + 7421, previously considered the most powerful in the history of space observations.
- Murchison Widefield Array Radio Observatory (Australia)
- © ICRAR
Professor Johnston-Hollitt compared the discovery to the discovery of the first bones of a dinosaur.
“There is some resemblance to archeology in this matter. With low-frequency radio telescopes, we now need to more often detect energy emissions similar to this, ”she said.
According to scientists, the explosion was caused by a supermassive black hole located in the center of the galaxy.
In an interview with RT, Professor Alexander Lutovinov, deputy director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about the processes that could have caused the release of energy of similar power.
“In the center of the active core of the galaxy is a supermassive black hole. It attracts matter, which actively warms up to huge temperatures, glows, plasma jets are emitted from there, and powerful explosions also occur, ”the astrophysicist explained.
He added that there could have been other similar explosions in the Universe, traces of which have not yet been discovered by scientists.
“The peculiarity of this explosion is that it has an unusually high energy level, a giant energy release. He is the most powerful of the known, from what is measured. However, there could be others. And most likely, they were, ”he suggested.