An "extraordinary" explosion in space occurred when stars collided with a black hole, scientists said.
A space telescope and an observatory of the American space agency NASA detected the event, called a 'gamma-ray burst'.
The explosion, which lasted for a minute, was described by a team of scientists as "a rare cosmic event". The scientists have expressed hope that the research will help them to study future events.
Gamma-ray bursts are considered the most powerful explosions in the universe.
What are gold factories in space?
The research team was led by Jillian Rastinejad from Northwestern University in the US. It included experts from the Universities of Birmingham and Leicester as well as Radboud University in the Netherlands. Researchers believe the eruption produced elements such as gold and platinum. Dr Matt Nicholl, associate professor at the University of Birmingham, said the research supports the idea that kilonovae are the main factory of gold in the universe.
After all, how many black holes are there in the universe?
According to an estimate, there are 2 lakh crore galaxies in the Observable Universe i.e. that part of the universe which we are able to detect with the help of all our technology. At the center of every galaxy is a supermassive black hole millions of times more powerful than the Sun. 2 lakh crore galaxies would mean 2 lakh crore supermassive black holes.
