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IMAGE: The main panel of this graphic is an artist s illustration of a
close-up view of a quasar and its jet, like the one in PJ352-52. The inset contains X-ray data from
Chandra. view more
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/JPL/T. Connor; Optical: Gemini/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Infrared: W.M. Keck
Observatory; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Astronomers have discovered evidence for an extraordinarily long jet of particles coming from a supermassive black hole in the early universe, using NASA s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
If confirmed, it would be the most distant supermassive black hole with a jet detected in X-rays. Coming from a galaxy about 12.7 billion light-years from Earth, the jet may help explain how the biggest black holes formed at a very early time in the universe s history.
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IMAGE: This artist s impression shows how the distant quasar P172+18 and its radio jets may have looked. To date (early 2021), this is the most distant quasar with radio jets ever. view more
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
With the help of the European Southern Observatory s Very Large Telescope (ESO s VLT), astronomers have discovered and studied in detail the most distant source of radio emission known to date. The source is a radio-loud quasar a bright object with powerful jets emitting at radio wavelengths that is so far away its light has taken 13 billion years to reach us. The discovery could provide important clues to help astronomers understand the early Universe.
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Astronomers using the National Science Foundation s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) have found and studied the most distant cosmic jet discovered so far a jet of material propelled to nearly the speed of light by the supermassive black hole in a quasar some 13 billion light-years from Earth. The quasar is seen as it was when the universe was only 780 million years old, and is providing scientists with valuable information about how galaxies evolved and supermassive black holes grew when the universe was that young.
The studies indicate that the quasar a galaxy harboring a black hole 300 million times more massive than the Sun has a jet of fast-moving particles only about 1,000 years old. While other quasars have been found at its distance and beyond, it is the first found at such a distance with the strong radio emission indicating an active jet. Only a small fraction of quasars have such jets.