Study says Centre of Milky Way exploded just over 3 million years ago

According to a study, a supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy exploded 3.5 million years ago. The black hole is also named as Sagittarius A, or Sgr A* (pronounced Sagittarius A-star). It is about 4.2 million times bigger than the Sun, and it exploded due to nuclear activities, according to a team of scientists at Australia's ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3-D).

READ: Indian Scientists Discover 28 New Stars In Milky Way

A Seyfert flare created two huge 'ionization cones' of radiation 

The burst is known as a Seyfert flare which resulted in creating two huge 'ionization cones' of radiation which flared to both poles of the galaxy and out into deep space. The researchers reported that the flare was so powerful that it impacted Magellanic Stream - a long trail of gas extending from nearby dwarf galaxies called the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. According to the Australian-US research team, it lies at an average 200,000 light-years from the Milky Way.

READ: Milky Way Headed Towards Catastrophic Galactic Collision

The explosion occurred some 3.5 million years ago

The explosion occurred some 3.5 million years ago, according to the researchers who used data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope. Researchers said that in galactic terms this is surprisingly recent. Professor Lisa Kewley, Director of ASTRO 3-D said it is a very dramatic event that happened a few million years ago in the history of Milky Way. She said a massive blast of energy and radiation came right of the galactic centre and into the surrounding material. She added that it was lucky that humans don't reside there. The study follows a 2013 research, additionally driven by Bland-Hawthorn, which precluded an atomic starburst as the reason for the gigantic explosive occasion. It had connected the occasion to movement in SgrA*. The researchers noted that more research needs to be done on how black holes evolve, influence and interact with galaxies.

READ: NASA Astronauts Complete First Spacewalk To Upgrade Station Batteries

READ: NASA Retires Its 11-year Old Ocean Monitoring Satellite Jason-2

(with inputs from PTI)