Super-volcano erupts in outer galaxy, similar to Icelandic volcano on Earth

A galactic super-volcano is erupting in massive galaxy M87 and blasting gas outwards, and NASA scientists view that the huge volcano in M87 is very similar to the recent Icelandic volcano that caused heavy air traffic disruptions across Europe.

According to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, M87 is relatively close to the Earth at a distance of about 50 million light years and lies at the center of the Virgo cluster, which contains thousands of galaxies.

Messier 87 (M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy and contains a notable active galactic nucleus that is a strong source of multiwavelength radiation, particularly radio waves.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory found that the cluster surrounding M87 is filled with hot gas glowing in X-ray light. Under normal circumstances, the hot gas would cool and can fall toward the galaxy's center where it should continue to cool even faster, igniting new stars.

However, radio observations by National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) suggest that the "jets of very energetic particles" produced in the black hole at the center of M87 galaxy are interrupting the formation of new stars.

"These jets lift up the relatively cool gas near the center of the galaxy and produce shock waves in the galaxy's atmosphere because of their supersonic speed," according to the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Scientists have found similarities between the interaction of this cosmic "eruption" with the galaxy's environment and the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland that occurred in 2010.

The Icelandic volcano blasted pockets of hot gas through the surface of the lava, generating shock waves that can be seen passing through the grey smoke of the volcano.

This hot gas in turn goes up in the atmosphere, dragging the dark ash with it, similar to the energetic jets produced in the black hole of M87 galaxy that lift cooler gas away from the galactic center.

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which had erupted in 920, 1612 and again from 1821 to 1823, caused a glacial lake's outburst of flood. It has erupted twice in 2010 -- on March 20 and again in April-May.

Though, the March event only forced a brief evacuation of around 500 local people, the April 14 eruption was ten to twenty times more powerful and caused substantial disruption to air traffic across Europe, and is ongoing. It has resulted in cancellation of thousands of flights across Europe and those to Iceland in particular.