Gigantic Cosmic Explosion

Astronomers capture largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed

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Fireball ‘100 times the size of the solar system’ thought to have been caused by gas being sucked into supermassive black hole It started as an unremarkable flicker in the night sky. But closer observations revealed that astronomers had captured the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed, an event thought to have been triggered by a giant cloud of gas being gobbled up by a supermassive black hole. The flare-up, traced to 8bn light years away, is more than 10 times brighter than any known supernova and has so far lasted more than three years, making it the most energetic explosion on record. “It went unnoticed for a year as it gradually got brighter,” said Dr Philip Wiseman, an astronomer at Southampton University who led the observations. It was only when follow-up observations revealed how distant it was that astronomers appreciated the event’s almost unimaginable scale. “We’ve estimated it’s a fireball 100 times the size of the solar system with a brightness about 2tn times the sun’s,” Wiseman said. “In three years, this event has released about 100 times as much energy as the sun will in its 10bn-year lifetime.”

:eye-poppi

The sheer scale of things out there in the universe is mind-boggling.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/gfA3xa6