Astronomers discover the largest, oldest black hole jet ever
The light from this quasar began its journey to Earth more than 12 billion years ago, and thus scientists can study the universe as it appeared when it was 1.2 billion years old, about 9% of its present age.
The quasar J1601+3102 is powered by a massive black hole with a mass of approximately 450 million times the mass of our Sun. That's significant but modest by comparison to other quasars, whose black holes are billions of times more massive than the Sun.
The finding overturns previous theories that only very large black holes were able to produce such gigantic jets, and it indicates that early universe black holes with a range of masses played an important role in the environment around them.
All about this jet
The observation was made possible through the collaborative power of some advanced telescopes:
LOFAR (Low-Frequency Array): A system of European radio telescopes that first detected the jet.
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Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS):Located in Hawaii, this facility allowed astronomers to measure the redshift of the quasar, how far away it is, and how old it is.
Hobby-Eberly Telescope: Based in Texas, this telescope provided optical data to further elucidate the quasar and the jet.
Implications for cosmic evolution
The vast size of the jet would mean that even relatively small early-universe black holes would have been able to produce such energetic jets.
They would have played a significant part in galaxy evolution by regulating the formation of stars and dispersing energy over enormous distances. The asymmetry of the jet would imply that environmental conditions may dictate the direction and power of such outflows. It is crucial to comprehend these dynamics to unravel the tangled interactions that determine galaxy formation.
This discovery not only provides a glimpse of the activities of black holes in the primordial universe but also underlines the strength of modern radio astronomy. With the upgrading of technology, astronomers anticipate finding more similar phenomena, strengthening our knowledge of the universe's formative periods.
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