The Largest Twin Jets, Which May Span 23 Million Light-Years, Emerge From Black Holes

Astronomers made a remarkable discovery when they observed the eruption of colossal twin jets originating from a black hole. These jets extend over an immense distance of approximately 23 million light-years, showcasing a scale equivalent to aligning 140 Milky Way galaxies in a row. 

The stunning event unfolded from the core of a supermassive black hole situated nearly 7.5 billion light-years away, capturing the attention of scientists intrigued by the distant cosmic phenomena.

“It’s the largest yet, at over 20 million light years from end to end”

Compared to our Sun, the jets that shot out of the black hole unleashed billions of times more energy every second.

University of Hertfordshire team member Martin Hardcastle, in an interview with Space.com, said “We’ve known about these structures made by jets from galactic-centre supermassive black holes for a long time, but this particular one stands out for three reasons,”

He continued “First, it’s the largest yet, at over 20 million light years from end to end, which means it goes from the centre of its parent galaxy right out into the void between galaxies and galaxy groups,”

“Secondly, it’s one of the most powerful we know about, with a fast rate of matter infall onto the black hole. And finally, it is found when the universe was only roughly half of its present age, and is thought to have been a much more violent place with much more going on that could have disrupted the jets,” he added.

Scientists gave the gigantic jets a suitable mythic name, “Porphyrion,”

The scientists named the enormous jets “Porphyrion,” a mythical creature from Greek mythology, in collaboration with the team that found the megastructure.

These jets’ outflow is expected to have been crucial to the evolution of galaxies in the early cosmos, the researchers conclude.

George Djorgovski, a professor of data science and astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said “Astronomers believe that galaxies and their central black holes co-evolve, and one key aspect of this is that jets can spread huge amounts of energy that affect the growth of their host galaxies and other galaxies near them,” 

“This discovery shows that their effects can extend much farther out than we thought,” he added.

Scientists utilizing the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) radio telescope made the discovery of Pophyrion.

Hardcastle said “Giant jets were known before we started the campaign, but we had no idea that there would turn out to be so many,”

“Usually, when we get a new observational capability, such as LOFAR’s combination of wide field of view and very high sensitivity to extended structures, we find something new, but it was still very exciting to see so many of these objects emerging,” he concluded.

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