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Scientists studying a distant galaxy cluster have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the Universe since the Big Bang.

The blast came from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy hundreds of millions of light-years away.

It released five times more energy than the previous record holder.

Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, from the 麻豆直播 node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said the event was extraordinarily energetic.

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen outbursts in the centres of galaxies before but this one is really, really massive,鈥� she said.

鈥淎nd we don鈥檛 know why it鈥檚 so big.

鈥淏ut it happened very slowly鈥攍ike an explosion in slow motion that took place over hundreds of millions of years.鈥�

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鈥攖he 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.

鈥淭he difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster鈥檚 hot gas,鈥� 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.

鈥淧eople were sceptical because the size of outburst,鈥� she said.聽 鈥淏ut it really is that. The Universe is a weird place.鈥�

The researchers only realised what they had discovered when they looked at the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster with radio telescopes.

鈥淭he radio data fit inside the X-rays like a hand in a glove,鈥� said co-author Dr Maxim Markevitch, from NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center.

鈥淭his is the clincher that tells us an eruption of unprecedented size occurred here.鈥�

The discovery was made using four telescopes; NASA鈥檚 Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India.

Professor Johnston-Hollitt, who is the director of the MWA and an expert in galaxy clusters, likened the finding to discovering the first dinosaur bones.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit like archaeology,鈥� she said.

鈥淲e’ve been given the tools to dig deeper with low frequency radio telescopes so we should be able to find more outbursts like this now.鈥�

The finding underscores the importance of studying the Universe at different wavelengths, Professor Johnston-Hollitt said.

鈥淕oing back and doing a multi-wavelength study has really made the difference here,鈥� she said.

Professor Johnston-Hollitt said the finding is likely to be the first of many.

鈥淲e made this discovery with Phase 1 of the MWA, when the telescope had 2048 antennas pointed towards the sky,鈥� she said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e soon going to be gathering observations with 4096 antennas, which should be ten times more sensitive.鈥�

鈥淚 think that’s pretty exciting.鈥�