What does a duet of jets of a black hole look like, “shooting” in opposite directions

A duo of black hole jets 140 times larger than the diameter of the Milky Way

E. Wernqvist / D. Nelson (collaboration with IllustrisTNG) / M. Oey

Astronomers discovered a duo of black hole jets “shooting” in opposite directions. According to their calculations, these are the most powerful beams ever seen.

Their diameter is about 140 times greater than the diameter of our huge Milky Way galaxy, it is said in the results of the study, published in the journal Nature, they write Reuters and Popular Science.

This cosmic megastructure was formed when the universe was only 6.3 billion years old. Scientists named it after the giant from Greek mythology – Porphyrion.

During that time, it ejected energy equivalent to trillions of Suns into 23 million light-years of space.

Astronomers say further research could shed light on how galaxies formed in the earliest ages of the universe.

“Scientists believe that galaxies and their central black holes evolve together.

So one of the key aspects of this is that the jets can release enormous amounts of energy that affect the growth of the host galaxies and other nearby galaxies“, explained co-author of the study, professor of astronomy and data science at the California Institute of Technology, George Giorgowski.

Scientists know that hundreds of reactive black hole systems had some influence on the early evolution of the universe through the emission of cosmic rays, heavy atoms, magnetic fields and heat.

But only recently have they begun to realize the extent of their importance. A change in attitude occurred in recent years following the use of the European LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) radio telescope to study the sky for supermassive black holes.

By the time Porphyrion was discovered, more than 10,000 reactive black hole systems had been documented.

Porphyrion jets radiate in polar directions from a supermassive black hole that lies at the center of a galaxy about 10 times the size of the Milky Way and about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.

These energy flows extend about 40% farther than from the Alcyone system, which was discovered in 2022 also with LOFAR.

“Until now, these giant jet systems seemed to be a phenomenon of the recent universe.

If such distant jets can reach the scale of the cosmic web, then every place in the universe could have been affected by a black hole at some point in cosmic time.”— explained lead author and postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, Martyjn Oey.

Astronomers have also determined that Porphyryon has a “mode” where the giant gravitational forces of the supermassive black hole begin to pull and heat the surrounding material. They emit energy in the form of jets.

Such black holes are a staple of the young universe, while jet versions are more common today.

According to scientists, Porphyrion indicates that many similar and possibly larger megastructures may have once existed.

“We may be looking at the tip of the iceberg. Our LOFAR survey only covered 15% of the sky. And most of these giant jets are probably hard to see, so we think there are many more giants“, said Martijn Oey.