Giant black hole jet measuring millions of light-years seen by astronomers

Gigantic Black Hole Jet Measuring Million Light-Years Across Spotted by Astronomers

Astronomers observing a nearby galaxy with a powerful telescope have detected one of the largest black hole jets ever observed. The jet, measuring a million light-years from end to end, is not only massive, but has been estimated to be 50 times larger than the Milky Way. A nearby galaxy, NGC2663, lies in our neighborhood and is only 93 million light-years away from us. Similar black hole jets have been observed before, but the sheer size of the newly discovered jet and its proximity to the Milky Way make it a unique discovery.

astronomer Western Sydney University Observed it using an ordinary telescope and saw the oval shape of a typical elliptical galaxy. However, he made some extraordinary discoveries when observing the galaxy with a super-telescope called the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

By analyzing radio waves recorded by the telescope, astronomers detected a jet of matter ejected from the Milky Way from a central black hole. It was found to be 50 times larger than the Milky Way, and if it could be seen with the naked eye, it would appear larger than the Moon in the night sky. In the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) survey, astronomers noted that there is no trace of matter. The middle galaxies were pushing back on the edges of the jet. This was found to be similar to the effect in jet.

When the exhaust plume explodes through the atmosphere, the ambient pressure pushes it from side to side. This, in turn, is the result of expansion and contraction of the jet, causing it to pulsate as it travels. The flutter regularly appears as bright spots that astronomers have called “shock diamonds”.

Diamonds with such shocks have previously been observed in small galaxy-sized jets, but this was the first time astronomers had seen the jets being compressed from the sides of the mass.

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