“Mysterious, Massive Radio Jet Detected in Space”
Located in Cape Canaveral, Florida, telescopes from various locations across the globe have identified a gigantic radio jet emanating from a quasar originating from the earliest billion years of the universe. This radio wave jet, measuring twice the width of our Milky Way galaxy, stands out as the most extensive ever observed from such an early epoch in the universe’s history, as disclosed by astronomers on Thursday.
While radio jets are a familiar sight in our cosmic vicinity, they have remained out of reach in the distant ancient universe due to the obstructing cosmic microwave background residue from the Big Bang. Solely due to the extreme nature of this particular object can it be observed from Earth, despite its considerable distance, stated lead author Anniek Gloudemans of the National Science Foundation’s NoirLab.
The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, involved contributions from observatories in Europe as well as in Hawaii and Texas. This double-sided radio wave is estimated to span at least 200,000 light-years, with a light-year equating to 5.8 trillion miles.
This peculiar quasar, which fuels the massive radio jet, came into existence when the universe was merely 9% of its current age, approximately 1.2 billion years old. Quasars, known as some of the most luminous entities in the universe, consist of galactic cores where gas and dust fall into a black hole, releasing an immense amount of energy. The mass of this quasar is akin to 450 million times the mass of our sun, housing a black hole that is not exceptionally large.
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