Two huge clusters of galaxies smashed into each other around a billion years ago, and they dwarf our own.

The structures were captured by a team of astronomer using a radio telescope in South Africa. The Milky Way is 100,000 light years long.

These kinds of collisions are the most powerful events we know of in the universe, and remain mysterious because of the sonic booms created by aircraft going faster than the speed of sound.

Making Waves

The Abell 3667 was spotted by the MeerKAT radio telescope and it sent a huge wave across the universe at a rate of 1500 kilometers a second.

"These structures are full of surprises and much more complex than we thought, and they were published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics," said de Gasperin.

The shock waves act as giant particle accelerators that accelerate electrons to speeds close to the speed of light.

The boundaries of the magnetic field lines are shown by the intricate pattern of radio waves.

Abell 3667 is 700 million light years away, which is close to the size of the universe.

The study shows how complex these colliders are, and they hope to learn more soon.

The researchers conclude in their paper that MeerKAT will be transformational in the study of these complex phenomena.

There is a shock wave that lasts for over 6 million light years.

Scientists are puzzled by weird strands at the center of our galaxy.

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