Astronomers have discovered the largest-ever pair of black hole jets, stretching an astonishing 23 million light-years long – equivalent to 140 Milky Way galaxies laid end to end. The colossal outflows, nicknamed Porphyrion, originated from a massive black hole 7.5 billion light-years away and burst forth with the power of trillions of stars.
The enormous jet pair was spotted among 10,000 others in a survey by Europe’s Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope. By studying these gargantuan outflows, scientists hope to understand how they shaped the early cosmos into its current form.
Supermassive black holes typically reside at galaxy centers, feeding on surrounding matter before expelling it at extreme speeds – creating a feedback process that influences galaxy evolution. However, scientists still lack a full understanding of how these cosmic engines and their jets affect galaxies.
To better grasp this phenomenon, researchers searched for hidden black hole jets by scanning LOFAR radio images by eye, using machine learning tools, and citizen scientists to identify any missed jets. Once the first hints of Porphyrion’s gigantic wisps were spotted, follow-up observations revealed the exact location of the jets’ origins in a massive galaxy 10 times bigger than the Milky Way.
Further observations with the Keck Observatory in Hawaii showed that Porphyrion’s plumes stretched far into the cosmic web – a network of filaments connecting and feeding galaxies. This enormous size suggests that black hole activity may have played an even more crucial role in shaping the universe than previously thought.
Porphyrion also emerged from a type of black hole common in the early universe but not previously thought to produce giant jets, implying that many more of these eruptions could be lurking in the early universe. The researchers’ next steps will involve investigating how gigantic jets shaped the early universe by spewing cosmic rays, heavy atoms, heat, and magnetic fields across galaxies.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/biggest-black-hole-jets-ever-seen-are-140-milky-ways-long