We all know that large-energy explosions usually have shock waves, such as large-scale bomb explosions, volcanic eruptions, nuclear bomb explosions will produce shock waves, this wave at the speed of sound from the explosion point outward, its destructive force is quite powerful, close to the explosion point of the houses and trees will be destroyed and broken, such as some time ago when the Tonga volcano erupted, the shock wave generated around the entire earth, this shock wave throughout the Pacific Ocean and parts of the Atlantic Ocean caused tsunami phenomenon.
The explosion of the nuclear bomb forms a shock wave scene, and the outer disc is the shock wave.
The global shock wave created by the tonga volcano is the first real-time observation of the shock wave surrounding the entire Earth's atmosphere, this shock wave is large enough, but compared with the shock wave mentioned in this article, it can be too small to be negligible, because this article is about a cosmic celestial level shock wave, astronomical observations show that this shock wave is 6.5 million light years long, the frontal impact area is as large as 60 milky ways, and it is still expanding at a speed of 1500 kilometers per second.
Rendering of the largest known shockwave observation in the universe
The astronomical discovery came from an international astronomical research team led by the University of Hamburg, Germany, who used the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa to observe this huge shock wave that is advancing rapidly, which is located in the Abel 3667 galaxy cluster 800 million light-years away from us, and astronomers believe that this is the longest and largest shock wave observed by humans so far, and from its source, this shock wave has expanded outward by 6.5 million light-years. The shockwave expands forward to an area equivalent to 60 galaxies, and the forwards can advance at a speed of up to 1,500 kilometers per second and 5.4 million kilometers in one hour.
The symmetrical structure of this shock wave, with the source of the explosion in the middle
How can a shock wave be so huge? How exactly did it come about? Scientists believe that this giant shock wave is the product of the merger of galaxy clusters, that is, formed in a huge explosion that occurs when multiple galaxies collide together.
Galaxies are huge celestial bodies in the universe, such as the Milky Way we are in, it is a barred spiral galaxy, its diameter is up to 160,000 light years, of which there are as many as 100 billion to 400 billion stars, there are countless planets, moons, asteroids and nebulae, etc., the total mass of up to 890 billion times the mass of the Sun, and the Milky Way's neighbor Andromeda Galaxy is twice the size of the Milky Way, and the size of the largest M87 galaxy in this galaxy group is several times that of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy. Of course, such a mass of celestial bodies also have a strong gravitational force, astronomers have long found that the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy are approaching each other, about 2 billion to 4 billion years later, the two major galaxies will collide together, and in fact, many galaxies are smaller galaxies colliding with each other, and our Milky Way is considered to be the confluence of hundreds of smaller galaxies.
Therefore, the collision and merger of galaxies is a very common thing in the universe, and in the process of galaxy cluster merger, the gravitational field between stars will change, individual stars and other celestial bodies will collide together, black holes will tear apart some stars and other celestial bodies, nebulae and other celestial bodies will also interact with galactic high-temperature plasma, so when galaxies collide together, it can also be seen that these two huge energies collide together, so there will be shock waves, and when galaxy clusters with many galaxies collide together, Of course, the scale of the shock wave will be larger.
The Abel 3667 Galaxy Cluster contains at least 550 galaxies, and such a large number of galaxies hitting in one cluster will certainly trigger a massive cosmic shockwave, forming a spectacular cosmic celestial phenomenon.
The researchers also found through observation that this shock wave has a very complex structure, some of which have a similar function of an accelerator, which can accelerate electrons to an amplitude close to the speed of light, and the ability of this accelerated particle to surprise the researchers, and the reason why this shock wave can be found is also because these accelerated electrons will produce long-wave radiation on the radio band when they pass through the magnetic field, and radio telescopes can observe this long-wave radiation.
Resources:
Global Web Article, February 23, "Astronomers Find the Largest ShockWave in the Known Universe, Up to 6.5 Million Light Years"
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