Two jets 23 million light-years long discovered

Artist’s impression of the largest system of jets emitted by black holes ever observed. Called Porphyry, after a Greek mythological giant, the jets span about 7 megaparsecs, or 23 million light-years. That’s the same distance covered by 140 Milky Way galaxies lined up behind each other. Credits: E. Wernquist / D. Nilsson (IllustrisTNng Collaboration) / M. Oy

An international research team has discovered giant jets of gas and particles, produced by a distant, supermassive black hole. It extends for a distance of 23 million light years.Or about the diameter of 140 galaxies like the Milky Way. This giant structure, the largest of its kind known so far, has been given its nickname Porphyrion In honor of a giant from Greek mythology. These jets date back to when the universe was 6.3 billion years old, less than half its current age of 13.8 billion years. The energy that powers the planes is estimated to be equivalent to the energy of trillions of suns.

Prior to this discovery, the largest jet system ever observed was Alkyonius, discovered in 2022, with an expanse about 100 times the size of the Milky Way. But Porphyry’s discovery suggests that these giant jet systems may have influenced galaxy formation in the early universe more than previously thought.

“The discovery of porphyry represents a very important step in understanding the evolution of black holes and galaxies, with potential implications also for the properties of the universe on very large scales,” he comments. Andrea Bottoneco-author of the study. “This result was possible thanks to the use of the extensive network of antennas that make up LOFAR, which allowed us for the first time to identify porphyrione and thus to conduct tracking With other telescopes to determine its physical properties.”

Thanks to the European radio telescope LOFAR (Low Frequency Array), more than ten thousand barely visible massive structures have been discovered, in addition to Porphyry. Although hundreds of large jet systems were already known before the LOFAR observations, they were thought to be rare and on average smaller than the thousands of systems discovered. “This pair is not just the size of the Solar System or the Milky Way; we are talking about 140 total diameters of the Milky Way.” Martin, excuse me.a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology and lead author of a new paper published in nature“The Milky Way will be a tiny dot in these two giant explosions.”

This image, taken by Europe’s Low Frequency ARray (LOFAR) radio telescope, shows the most extensive pair of black hole jets known to date. Nicknamed Porphyry after a mythical Greek giant, the jet system spans 23 million light-years. The galaxy hosting the supermassive black hole, 7.5 billion light-years away, is the dot in the center of the image. The larger, brighter structure, near the center, is another, smaller jet. Credits: LOFAR/Martin Ooi collaboration (Caltech)

To locate the galaxy the Porphyryons came from, the team used the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India along with data from a project called the Dark Energy Analysis Instrument (Desi), which operates out of Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The observations pinpointed the origin of the jets: a galaxy about ten times larger than our own Milky Way.

The team then used the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii to show that Porphyry is located 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.This result suggests that if distant jets like this can reach the scale of the cosmic web, then it is likely that every location in the universe has been affected by black hole activity at some point in cosmic history.

The observations from the Keck telescope also revealed that the porphyry comes from a so-called active black hole in radiative mode, rather than jet mode. In this particular case, the supermassive black hole emits energy in the form of radiation and jets as it attracts and heats the material around it: a surprise to researchers, who had not thought it possible for such powerful jets to come from a black hole in this mode. The discovery therefore suggests that in the distant universe, where radiative black holes are abundant, there may be many more of these powerful jets that have yet to be discovered.

It is still unclear how the jets can extend so far beyond their host galaxies without destabilizing them. The most plausible hypothesis is that in the host galaxy, an unusually long-lasting and stable accretion event occurs around the central supermassive black hole to allow it to remain active for so long—about a billion years—and ensure that the jets continue to point in the same direction throughout that time.

“Low-frequency observations continue to show their amazing potential,” he says. Francesco De Gasperin“Being able to observe and process this data properly is very complex, but in recent years great strides have been made that have allowed for a number of important discoveries, including many related to the physics of supermassive black holes and their effect on the life of living organisms,” said study co-author and Enav researcher Dr.

The next step for the researchers will be to delve deeper into how these massive structures affect their environment, and in particular, how the jets spread cosmic rays, heat, heavy atoms and magnetic fields into intergalactic space. Another goal for the scientists is to understand the mechanisms involved in the propagation of magnetic fields associated with these massive jets, how they affect the distribution of magnetic fields in the large cosmic web and what role magnetic fields might play in the formation and maintenance of conditions favorable for life, as they do on our planet.

Read more:

• Continue reading nature The article “Black hole jets on the cosmic web scale“, di Martijn SSL Oei, Martin J. Hardcastle, Roland Timmerman, Aivin RDJGIB Guest, Andrea Botteon, Antonio C. Rodriguez, Daniel Stern, Gabriela Calistro Rivera, Reinout J. van Weeren, Hub J. A. Röttgering, Huib T. Intema, Francesco D. Gasperin, S. J. Djurgovsky

Watch the interview with Andrea Bottone on Media Enve TV: