For a different perspective on diasters
March 20, 2020 8:36 AM Subscribe
Biggest explosion (that we've seen) since the Big Bang. Just love this quote:
"The difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster's hot gas," she said.
(snip)
Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said the event was extraordinarily energetic.
"We've seen outbursts in the centres of galaxies before but this one is really, really massive," she said.
"And we don't know why it's so big.
"But it happened very slowly—like an explosion in slow motion that took place over hundreds of millions of years."
The explosion occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, about 390 million light-years from Earth.
It was so powerful it punched a cavity in the cluster plasma—the super-hot gas surrounding the black hole.
Lead author of the study Dr. Simona Giacintucci, from the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States, said the blast was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which ripped the top off the mountain.
"The difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster's hot gas," she said.
Professor Johnston-Hollitt said the cavity in the cluster plasma had been seen previously with X-ray telescopes.
But scientists initially dismissed the idea that it could have been caused by an energetic outburst, because it would have been too big.
"People were sceptical because of the size of outburst," she said. "But it really is that. The Universe is a weird place."
(snip)
Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said the event was extraordinarily energetic.
"We've seen outbursts in the centres of galaxies before but this one is really, really massive," she said.
"And we don't know why it's so big.
"But it happened very slowly—like an explosion in slow motion that took place over hundreds of millions of years."
The explosion occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, about 390 million light-years from Earth.
It was so powerful it punched a cavity in the cluster plasma—the super-hot gas surrounding the black hole.
Lead author of the study Dr. Simona Giacintucci, from the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States, said the blast was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which ripped the top off the mountain.
"The difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster's hot gas," she said.
Professor Johnston-Hollitt said the cavity in the cluster plasma had been seen previously with X-ray telescopes.
But scientists initially dismissed the idea that it could have been caused by an energetic outburst, because it would have been too big.
"People were sceptical because of the size of outburst," she said. "But it really is that. The Universe is a weird place."
Naah. If it was that easy there wouldn't be just *one*. :)
posted by aleph at 8:44 AM on March 20, 2020
posted by aleph at 8:44 AM on March 20, 2020
Dr. Simona Giacintucci, from the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States, said the blast was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens
"...except for, like, everything. All the details are completely different." continued Dr. Giacintucci. "Really they have nothing to do with each other at all. I have no idea why I made that comparison."
posted by echo target at 9:08 AM on March 20, 2020 [22 favorites]
"...except for, like, everything. All the details are completely different." continued Dr. Giacintucci. "Really they have nothing to do with each other at all. I have no idea why I made that comparison."
posted by echo target at 9:08 AM on March 20, 2020 [22 favorites]
Don't care what it was compared against.
Care about the "15 Milky Way Galaxies, all in a row" in the resulting hole.
posted by aleph at 9:11 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
Care about the "15 Milky Way Galaxies, all in a row" in the resulting hole.
posted by aleph at 9:11 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
I found this astronomy vlog post on the topic to be quite interesting.
posted by YAMWAK at 9:12 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by YAMWAK at 9:12 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
Care about the "15 Milky Way Galaxies, all in a row" in the resulting hole.
Universal Rule 34
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:13 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
Universal Rule 34
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:13 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
Don't do that! My head went there for a brief nanosecond before I NOPE'd out. :)
posted by aleph at 9:17 AM on March 20, 2020
posted by aleph at 9:17 AM on March 20, 2020
MetaFilter: punched into the cluster's hot gas
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:20 AM on March 20, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:20 AM on March 20, 2020 [4 favorites]
Or, if you prefer, perhaps the new story by Dr. Chuck Tingle “Punched in the Butt by the Cluster’s Hot Gas.” Something, something Milky Way. Hole.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:22 AM on March 20, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:22 AM on March 20, 2020 [8 favorites]
So we can pencil in something like this in-between the giant meteor impact next month and the false vacuum collapse in 2023?
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:49 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:49 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
So just checking - from reading the article, it sounds like the observers did not actually witness a real-time explosion, but rather a crater that came after the explosion, yes?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:08 AM on March 20, 2020
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:08 AM on March 20, 2020
Unfortunately we're not going to witness Betelgeuse exploding either. ¯\_(ಠ¬ಠ)_/¯
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:17 AM on March 20, 2020
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:17 AM on March 20, 2020
From the vlog I linked: the actual explosion happened 240 million years ago (from Earth's perspective - add on another 390 million years for the light of the explosion to reach us).
posted by YAMWAK at 10:20 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by YAMWAK at 10:20 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
Tip: The headline needs to be fixed.
posted by indianbadger1 at 10:43 AM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by indianbadger1 at 10:43 AM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: punched into the cluster's hot gas
Where are the Juicy Karkass people when you need them?
posted by mhoye at 10:47 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
Where are the Juicy Karkass people when you need them?
posted by mhoye at 10:47 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
Time out.
Ok. In a row, is that 15 deep and wide? Is the the biggest gas ejection in history.
posted by clavdivs at 10:52 AM on March 20, 2020
Ok. In a row, is that 15 deep and wide? Is the the biggest gas ejection in history.
posted by clavdivs at 10:52 AM on March 20, 2020
Oh I am so waiting to watch that Dr. Becky video YAMWAK linked. It should be right up her alley.
Half a billion years ago, some unthinkably alien creature was pondering, “Red wire or blue wire? Red wire or blue wire?”
More like coming to the conclusion that it was a god and saying "Let there be light".
posted by zengargoyle at 11:10 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
Half a billion years ago, some unthinkably alien creature was pondering, “Red wire or blue wire? Red wire or blue wire?”
More like coming to the conclusion that it was a god and saying "Let there be light".
posted by zengargoyle at 11:10 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
Half a billion years ago, some unthinkably alien creature was pondering, “Red wire or blue wire? Red wire or blue wire?”
What do you mean "false color image"?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:26 AM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
What do you mean "false color image"?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:26 AM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
Dr. Becky is awesome. You should subscribe to her channel if you haven't already.
posted by djeo at 11:55 AM on March 20, 2020
posted by djeo at 11:55 AM on March 20, 2020
"biggest gas ejection in history" something, something, Taco Bell.
am i doing this right?
posted by coppertop at 1:07 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
am i doing this right?
posted by coppertop at 1:07 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
> The difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
posted by mbrubeck at 1:08 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
posted by mbrubeck at 1:08 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
Dr. Simona Giacintucci, from the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States, said the blast was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens
"...except for, like, everything. All the details are completely different."
Except maybe that both can be described by the same laws of physics. We think.
posted by straight at 2:39 PM on March 20, 2020
"...except for, like, everything. All the details are completely different."
Except maybe that both can be described by the same laws of physics. We think.
posted by straight at 2:39 PM on March 20, 2020
Fluid dynamics doesn't care how big you are. Given long enough it will always fuck you up.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 2:53 PM on March 20, 2020
posted by thatwhichfalls at 2:53 PM on March 20, 2020
The blast came from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy hundreds of millions of light-years away.
Away from us or away from the "hole" in space? Well not a hole in space, hole in that cluster? Does that mean it wiped out entire galaxies? What happened to the people (or squid-persons) living on the planet in one of those galaxies? And why did God let that happen? Or did they escape and will be landing soon? Like in the next few hundred thousand million years? You know like really "soon" intergalactically speaking...
posted by sammyo at 8:53 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
Away from us or away from the "hole" in space? Well not a hole in space, hole in that cluster? Does that mean it wiped out entire galaxies? What happened to the people (or squid-persons) living on the planet in one of those galaxies? And why did God let that happen? Or did they escape and will be landing soon? Like in the next few hundred thousand million years? You know like really "soon" intergalactically speaking...
posted by sammyo at 8:53 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
Ah man, what did Jim Holden do *now*
posted by Drumhellz at 10:23 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Drumhellz at 10:23 PM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
Great to read and see the images -- thx for posting, OP.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:12 AM on March 21, 2020
posted by dancestoblue at 12:12 AM on March 21, 2020
Oh, hey, I knew Melanie at uni, great to see she's a professor now.
posted by Marticus at 2:25 PM on March 22, 2020
posted by Marticus at 2:25 PM on March 22, 2020
sammyo - What happened to the people (or squid-persons) living on the planet in one of those galaxies?
Although black holes are famous for pulling material toward them, they often expel prodigious amounts of material and energy. This happens when matter falling toward the black hole is redirected into jets, or beams, that blast outward into space and slam into any surrounding material.
Sounds like something immensely massive got sucked into a supermassive blackhole, or got sucked in the wrong way, and caused a mother of all ejection events.
If there was anyone/ anything in the vicinity, I'd imagine component atoms. Probably even just the nuclear decay products of said component atoms. But IANAn astrophysicist.
posted by porpoise at 6:17 PM on March 23, 2020
Although black holes are famous for pulling material toward them, they often expel prodigious amounts of material and energy. This happens when matter falling toward the black hole is redirected into jets, or beams, that blast outward into space and slam into any surrounding material.
Sounds like something immensely massive got sucked into a supermassive blackhole, or got sucked in the wrong way, and caused a mother of all ejection events.
If there was anyone/ anything in the vicinity, I'd imagine component atoms. Probably even just the nuclear decay products of said component atoms. But IANAn astrophysicist.
posted by porpoise at 6:17 PM on March 23, 2020
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posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:41 AM on March 20, 2020 [10 favorites]