Astronomers discover sonic boom from powerful unseen explosion

Toronto, Oct 5 (UNI) A team of astronomers have detected a sonic boom from an immensely powerful cosmic explosion, even though the explosion itself was totally unseen.

For years, the astronomers have been hunting all over the sky for an example of this strange phenomenon, known as an "orphan afterglow." At last, they've found one.

The titanic eruption, known as a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), was generated by the collapse of a massive star in a galaxy nearly 300 million light-years from Earth. In the process, the star collapsed into either a dense star called a magnetar, or more likely, a black hole.