5 days ago
Ancient black hole jet twice the size of milky way discovered, challenges cosmic theories
In a stunning discovery, astronomers have identified the oldest and largest black hole jet ever observed—stretching an astonishing 200,000 light-years, or twice the diameter of the Milky Way. This cosmic jet emanates from quasar J1601+3102, formed when the universe was just 1.2 billion years old, less than 10% of its current age.
What surprises researchers even more is that this colossal jet is powered by a modestly-sized black hole, only about 450 million times the mass of the sun. Until now, it was believed that only extremely massive black holes could generate such enormous jets, particularly in the early universe. This discovery challenges that long-standing notion.
Black hole jets typically form when the black hole actively consumes surrounding gas and dust, creating an accretion disc. As the black hole feeds, magnetic fields at its poles launch part of the matter outward in narrow, ultra-fast streams—what we see as jets.
The discovery was made using the LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) radio telescope, spread across Europe. Its presence and structure were confirmed using the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph and the Hobby Eberly Telescope. The jet appears as two large lobes, but one is notably shorter and dimmer, hinting at environmental influences such as variations in gas density or magnetic fields around the quasar.
This ancient, asymmetric jet offers unprecedented insights into black hole behavior, galactic evolution, and cosmic conditions in the early universe—reshaping what we thought we knew about how such extreme structures form and evolve.
