A black hole resides at the core of a galaxy about 7.5 billion years from Earth
Two super-massive jets have been found shooting in opposite directions from the supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy – the largest such jets ever were seen, which are about 140 times wider than our own giant Milky Way galaxy. A black hole resides at the core of a galaxy about 7.5 billion years from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion kilometers (9.5 trillion km). Because of the time that light takes, looking at distant places is looking back at a time when the universe was less than half the time it is now.
Black holes are incredibly dense objects with such strong gravity that even light cannot escape. Most galaxies, including the Milky Way, have a supermassive black hole at their center. Some of these jets of high-energy and gravitational particles in space from their two poles as they consume material such as gas, dust and stars that fall on them due to their enormous energy attract.
The two jet formations reported in the new study – using the LOFAR (Low-Frequency Array) radio telescope, a network of antennas located in the center of the Netherlands – extend the years 23 million lights from end to end.
These super-heated jets, caused by violent events around the black hole, are made up of tiny particles called electrons and positrons, and gravity, which travel at roughly the same speed.
The researchers named the two jets Porphyrion (pronounced poor-FEER-ee-ahn), after a giant from ancient Greek mythology. Porphyrion is about 30% taller than the previous record holder for such jets.
Caltech astronomer Martijn Oei, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature, says: “Porphyrion-like star systems appear to be some of the most powerful phenomena in the universe since Big Bang. about 13.8 billion years ago.
“The general understanding is that jets are formed when magnetic material falls into a rotating black hole,” added astronomer and study co-author Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in England. “They need to be supported by the continued fall of matter into the black hole, something on the order of one solar mass (solar mass) per year of material.”
Such jets, invisible to the naked eye, start small and grow over time.
“We’ve known for a while that black holes can produce these jets. But what’s interesting is that to produce a superstructure like this, the jets have to last a long time – about millions of years thousands,” Hardcastle said.
Porphyrion jets reach far beyond their home galaxy, producing energy equivalent to billions of stars the size of the sun.
“That is equivalent to the energy released during the most powerful cosmic events: for example, those that occur when two galaxies, sometimes containing thousands of galaxies, collide meet,” Oei said.
“The fact that it is so far away from its parent black hole means that it can pick up energy, particles and gravity in the cosmic web, the gaps between clusters and clusters of galaxies. stars that we know make up the universe. This can help us understand the gravity that exists in today’s universe,” Hardcastle said.
Such jets can heat gas in interstellar space, block the formation of new stars that require cold gas clouds, and can destroy habitable planets, the researchers said.
The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, while quiescent, has no such jets.
“The most important finding is that jets from black holes, if the conditions are right, can be as large as the larger parts of the universe – galaxies, cosmic filaments, cosmic voids,” Oei said. . “This means that black holes can have an influence that extends beyond the galaxy in which they reside.”
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