140 times longer than the Milky Way: Cosmic jets stun researchers

Astronomers have it. Longest black hole jets Discover that it has ever been found. It extends along 23 million light yearsThis is consistent with 140 times the diameter of the Milky Way.

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Milky Way as a small point

“The Milky Way is just a tiny dot compared to these two giant explosions,” he says. Caltech researcher Martin Oy in a statementThe giant structure was Porphyry Its name is after a giant from Greek mythology. It comes from a time when the universe was 6.3 billion years old.

Planes come from one supermassive black hole At the heart of a galaxy far, far away. Outflows are as active as trillions of suns. The previous record for the size of these jets was set in 2022 and was about 100 Milky Way stars.

This discovery suggests that giant jet aircraft systems have a larger size. Impact on galaxy formation In the early universe than previously thought, jets form when gases are ejected into space from a rotating disk around a massive object.

huge network in space

Many of these streams may have formed a vast cosmic web in early space, connecting galaxies and exchanging energy and mass. “Astronomers think that galaxies and central black holes evolve together,” says co-author George Djordjevski. “The key aspect is that jets can release enormous amounts of energy that influence the growth of their host galaxies and other galaxies in their vicinity.”

More than 10,000 giant structures

The Low Frequency Radio Telescope (LOFAR) in the Netherlands, which Oey previously worked with, has so far detected more than 10,000 of these massive structures. “When we first discovered the huge jets, we were very surprised,” says Oy. “We had I had no idea there were so many.”

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However, the discoveries are only the tip of the iceberg. Our research with LOFAR has only covered 15 percent From the sky. Most of these giant aircraft are probably hard to spot, so we think there are more of these giant aircraft out there.”

It remains unclear how the drones were able to spread so far without stabilizing themselves. Next, the researchers want to Effects From these massive aircraft to better understand their surroundings.