NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory detects mysterious cosmic explosion, origin still unknown

New Delhi : NASA scientists have spotted a mysterious flash in the universe in the deepest X-ray image ever using its Chandra X-ray Observatory. The flash spotted is unexplainable has been described by experts as a “completely new type of cataclysmic event”.

The flash, disappeared suddenly after 24 hours, came from a galaxy located 10.7 billion light years away. 

Based on the past data from, researchers, however, concluded that the source came from a faint, small galaxy located about billion light years away.

The source appeared thousands of times more energetic than all the stars in that galaxy. But in a daytime, it faded below the sensitivity of Chandra.

"Ever since discovering this source, we’ve been struggling to understand its origin. It’s like we have a jigsaw puzzle but we don’t have all of the pieces," Franz Brauer, of the Pontfical Catholic University, Chile, said.

According to researchers, various assumptions are being made. There could be three potential causes for the deep-space rays – collapse of a massive star, merger of a neutron star with another star or black hole, or a black hole tearing apart a white dwarf star.

However, none of these theories, say scientists, first the day they have available, which means it remains a mystery.

No event similar to this one has ever been detected anywhere else in the Universe.

Well, the researchers now has plans to scan through the Chandra archive and also use data from the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton telescope and NASA's Swift satellite to see if any other  evidence of a similar event occurred in the Universe.

Also, they will follow up with more Chandra observations on the galaxy.

While some may even call such kinds of events as signs of aliens, there is a whole lot going on in the Universe and we still are unaware about it.

Here is the explanation by researchers:

A collapse of a massive star may have caused the flash. A merger of a neutron star with another neutron star or black hole can also be a cause.