A black hole swallowing a star. - AFP PHOTO / SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY / MARK A. GARLICK

A new discovery. According to NASA, a gigantic black hole is the source of the largest explosion observed to date in the universe, reveals a study published Thursday in the journal The Astrophysical Journal.

"This huge fossil radio source could be one of the first examples of a new category of sources to discover", describe the scientists behind this discovery, described as "gargantuan".

Five times more energy than the previous record

According to specialists, this explosion was located in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, located 390 million light years from Earth. “This cluster contains in its center a large galaxy, which itself hosts an imposing supermassive black hole. It is probably this black hole which is at the origin of the explosion, explains Numerama.

This phenomenon had been spotted for the first time in 2016. But several observations were necessary to be able to discover this supermassive black hole. According to NASA, the explosion released five times more energy than the previous record.

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  • Universe
  • Black hole
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  • Space
  • Explosion