Black Hole With Powerful Jet Illuminated By Universe's 'Oldest Light' Spotted
The black hole is located 11.6 billion light-years from Earth, when the cosmic microwave background (CMB) was much denser than it is now. During this time, most galaxies and supermassive black holes were growing faster than at any other time during the history of the universe.
"As the electrons in the jets fly away from the black hole, they move through the sea of CMB radiation and collide with microwave photons," NASA stated, adding: "These collisions boost the energy of the photons up into the X-ray band, allowing them to be detected by Chandra even at this great distance, which is shown in the inset."
The jets extending from these black holes can extend millions of light-years in length. They are exceedingly bright because when particles approach the speed of light, they give off a tremendous amount of energy and behave in weird ways that Albert Einstein predicted.
Two other black holes
Additionally, the researchers confirmed the existence of two different black holes with jets over 300,000 light-years long. Situated 11.6 billion and 11.7 billion light-years away, particles in one jet are moving at between 95 per cent and 99 per cent of the speed of light (called J1405+0415) and the other at between 92 per cent and 98 per cent of the speed of light (J1610+1811).
In January, scientists stumbled upon a supermassive black hole, located a whopping 12.9 billion light-years from Earth, with its jet pointing straight at us. Named J0410-0139, the black hole has a mass of about 700 million Suns and is one of the oldest of its kind that scientists have ever observed.
When one of these jets points directly at Earth, scientists call the black hole system a blazar. Notably, a jet racing at near-light speed but angled away from us can appear just as bright as a slower jet pointed directly at Earth.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
40 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Seeds of seabuckthorn, Himalayan buckwheat part of experiment on ISS
Seeds of seabuckthorn and buckwheat grown in the cold desert of Ladakh are part of the experiments on board the International Space Station flown by NASA's Crew-11 mission. Seeds procured from 11 nations across five continents are part of the study spearheaded by U.S.-based bioastronautics firm Jaguar Space, which plans to expose the seeds to microgravity conditions for a week. The seeds are part of the "Emerging Space Nation's Space for Agriculture & Agriculture for Space" payload that flew to the ISS along with NASA's Crew-11, which lifted off from Florida on Friday (August 1, 2025) and docked onto the orbital lab on Saturday (August 2, 2025). The seeds will be brought back by the Crew-10, which is expected to return to Earth later this month. The seeds grown in Ladakh were sourced by Bengaluru-based space start-up Protoplanet. "We will study how the seeds react to micro-gravity conditions and their potential use as a food source for long-duration space missions," Siddharth Pandey, Director, Protoplanet, told PTI. Mr. Pandey stated that Protoplanet has contributed sea buckthorn and Himalayan tartary, nutrient-rich plants native to high-altitude regions. The Himalayan tartary is a variety of buckwheat that is nutrient-rich and gluten-free. On return from space, the seeds will be studied by Indian researchers. According to Jaguar Space, the World Seeds study examines how seeds react to the unique stresses of the space environment before they begin to grow, focusing on fundamental processes such as the activation of genes and metabolic pathways essential for germination. This experiment explores the potential of previously unexamined species to contribute to future space agriculture initiatives. Seeds from the Maldives, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nigeria, Armenia, Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria are part of the experiment. "Beyond its scientific potential to advance research on climate resilience and global food security, the World Seeds payload represents a meaningful step toward ensuring that, as humanity becomes a spacefaring civilisation, the millennia-old knowledge, biodiversity, and cultural heritage of communities around the world are carried forward as an essential part of that journey," said Dr. Luis Zea, Founder of Jaguar Space.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Seeds of seabuckthorn, Himalayan buckwheat part of experiment on ISS
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Seeds of seabuckthorn and buckwheat grown in the cold desert of Ladakh are part of the experiments on board the International Space Station flown by NASA's Crew-11 mission Seeds procured from 11 nations across five continents are part of the study spearheaded by US-based bioastronautics firm Jaguar Space , which plans to expose the seeds to microgravity conditions for a seeds are part of the "Emerging Space Nation's Space for Agriculture & Agriculture for Space" payload that flew to the ISS along with NASA's Crew-11, which lifted off from Florida on Friday and docked onto the orbital lab on seeds will be brought back by the Crew-10, which is expected to return to Earth later this seeds grown in Ladakh were sourced by Bengaluru-based space start-up Protoplanet "We will study how the seeds react to micro-gravity conditions and their potential use as a food source for long-duration space missions," Siddharth Pandey, Director, Protoplanet, told stated that Protoplanet has contributed sea buckthorn and Himalayan tartary, nutrient-rich plants native to high-altitude regions. The Himalayan tartary is a variety of buckwheat that is nutrient-rich and return from space, the seeds will be studied by Indian to Jaguar Space, the World Seeds study examines how seeds react to the unique stresses of the space environment before they begin to grow, focusing on fundamental processes such as the activation of genes and metabolic pathways essential for experiment explores the potential of previously unexamined species to contribute to future space agriculture from the Maldives, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nigeria, Armenia, Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria are part of the experiment."Beyond its scientific potential to advance research on climate resilience and global food security, the World Seeds payload represents a meaningful step toward ensuring that, as humanity becomes a spacefaring civilization, the millennia-old knowledge, biodiversity, and cultural heritage of communities around the world are carried forward as an essential part of that journey," said Dr Luis Zea, Founder of Jaguar Space.
Hans India
5 hours ago
- Hans India
SpaceX delivers 4 astronauts to ISS just 15 hrs after launch
Washington: SpaceX delivered a fresh crew to the International Space Station on Saturday, making the trip in a quick 15 hours. The four US, Russian and Japanese astronauts pulled up in their SpaceX capsule after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre. They will spend at least six months at the orbiting lab, swapping places with colleagues up there since March. SpaceX will bring those four back as early as Wednesday. Moving in are NASA's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russia's Oleg Platonov — each of whom had been originally assigned to other missions. 'Hello, space station!' Fincke radioed as soon as the capsule docked high above the South Pacific. Cardman and another astronaut were pulled from a SpaceX flight last year to make room for NASA's two stuck astronauts, Boeing Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose space station stay went from one week to more than nine months. Fincke and Yui had been training for the next Starliner mission. But with Starliner grounded by thruster and other problems until 2026, the two switched to SpaceX. Platonov was bumped from the Soyuz launch lineup a couple of years ago because of an undisclosed illness. Their arrival temporarily puts the space station population at 11. The astronauts greeting them had cold drinks and hot food waiting for them. While their taxi flight was speedy by US standards, the Russians hold the record for the fastest trip to the space station — a lightning-fast three hours.
