61: Biggest Bang Eva!

 
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Astronomers have spotted a void, a cavity, a big hole in the intergalactic stuff in a cluster of galaxies far away. And this thing is big. Very big — fifteen Milky Way Galaxies across. The void was created by a stupendously energetic jet erupting from a Super Massive Black Hole in the centre of one of the galaxies, and when they did the maths, the researchers realised they were looking at the aftermath of the biggest explosion since ... well, since the Big Bang itself!

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Things we talked about in this episode:

Come to Syzygy live, 16 May, at the Northern Podcast Festival 

The original paper by Giacintucci et al

Press releases: from Chandra X-Ray Observatory and from ICRAR

Previous energy record holder

Read more: NewScientist article

Bigger than a supernova: Hypernovas!

The SKA Telescope

Video about the SKA:

Murchison Widefield Array

Giant Metrewave Radio

Galactic Cannibalism