This is how the researchers imagine the jet of the black hole.
© E. Wernquist / D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration) / M. Oei
Astronomers have that longest jets of a black hole discovered that have ever been found. They extend over a length of 23 million light years. That corresponds 140 times the diameter of the Milky Way.
➤ Read more:
Milky Way as a small dot
“The Milky Way is just a small dot compared to these two gigantic eruptions,” says . The megastructure was Porphyrion named – after a giant from Greek mythology. It comes from a time when our universe was 6.3 billion years old.
The jets come from one supermassive black hole in the heart of a galaxy far, far away. The outflows are as energetic as trillions of suns. The previous size record for such jets was set in 2022 and was around 100 Milky Ways.
The discovery suggests that giant jet systems have a larger Influence on the formation of galaxies in the early universe than previously thought. Jets are formed when gases are thrown into space from a rotating disk around a massive object.
Huge network in space
Several of these jets may have formed a vast cosmic web in early space that connected galaxies and through which energy and mass were exchanged. “Astronomers believe that galaxies and their central black holes co-evolve. A key aspect is that jets can spread huge amounts of energy that influence the growth of their host galaxies and other galaxies in their vicinity,” says co-author George Djorgovski.
More than 10,000 megastructures
The Low Frequency Array Radio Telescope (LOFAR) in the Netherlands, with which Oei previously worked, has so far found more than 10,000 such megastructures. “When we first discovered the huge jets, we were quite surprised,” says Oei. “We had I have no idea there are so many.”
➤ Read more:
However, the discoveries are only the tip of the iceberg. “Our research with LOFAR only covered 15 percent of the sky. And most of these giant jets are probably difficult to detect, so we think there are many more of these giants out there,” he said.
How the jets were able to spread so far without stabilizing themselves remains unclear. Next, the researchers want the Effects of these mega jets to better understand their surroundings.
