October 23, 2024
4 min read
Could Colossal Black Hole Jets Have Shaped the Early Universe?
Supermassive black holes can expel jets of material so vast and powerful that they may shape the large-scale structure of the cosmos
An artist’s illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed. Nicknamed Porphyrion after a mythological Greek giant, these jets span roughly 7 megaparsecs, or 23 million light-years. That is equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back-to-back.
E. Wernquist/D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration)/M. Oei (CC BY-NC-ND)
In a galaxy 7.5 billion light-years away, a supermassive black hole shoots out streams of magnetized plasma that span 140 Milky Ways in length. This mind-boggling structure—nicknamed Porphyrion, after a giant from Greek mythology—contains the largest black hole jets physicists have ever seen, a team reported in Nature last month. And its existence suggests that black hole jets may have played a more important role in shaping the cosmos than previously thought.
Black holes occasionally generate jets when they overeat, as matter piles up around their maw and encounters extreme astrophysical forces. All matter that approaches a black hole takes on the form of a spiraling disk. This disk whirls around at such a rapid pace that the material within it glows white-hot and ionizes, transforming into a dense plasma roiling with magnetic fields. A spinning black hole can then twist these magnetic fields into tight cones at each of its rotational poles. Most matter exiting the disk will speed straight into the mouth of the black hole. But a small fraction instead is caught in the twisting fields and slingshots outwards, producing two straight beams that some astrophysicists liken to Jedi lightsabers.
Such jets initially captured scientists’ attention because they served as visual markers for black holes, bottomless pits that are otherwise invisible to most telescopes. Only over time did researchers see…
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