Supermassive Black Hole Shoots a Beam of Energy at Us

[Chip (OP)]

📎 Click on me to view the list of attachmentsTheme: Deep IndigoMidnight DarkPink & PurpleSlate GraySolarized LightEmerald GreenCyberpunk NeonNordDraculaSunset OrangeWarm AmberOcean BreezeClassic LightCrimson DuskMatrix TerminalCoffee & CreamAutumn FrostRetro TerminalLavender MistNordic FrostMonochrome SlateTeal BreezeNo theme (plain)

ListAttBBC  |  v6.12  |  2026-09-10  |  Andrew.human & Claude.ai

#	File	Size	Downloads	Info	DL
00	Exp5kRdGVFfzaR7QNmBWrk-970-80.jpg.webp	57.9 KB	5136	ℹ️	⬇️
Attachment ID 3432 Filename (display) Exp5kRdGVFfzaR7QNmBWrk-970-80.jpg.webp File extension webp MIME type image/webp Size 57.9 KB (59320 bytes) Downloads 5136 Dimensions 970 x 546 px Uploaded by Guest Message ID 47694 Attachment type Normal attachment (0) Storage folder ID 1 Thumbnail attach ID none File hash 4d85ad569b79ecc6e910f54479009874d6373923 Approved Yes Filename (on disk) 3432_4d85ad569b79ecc6e910f54479009874d6373923 Storage directory base (/var/www/html/attachments) File exists on disk? Yes (core)
No recorded downloads yet.
01	R6vmQmJwFxDCq2s7Ao5Upk-970-80.jpg.webp	26.1 KB	642	ℹ️	⬇️
Attachment ID 3433 Filename (display) R6vmQmJwFxDCq2s7Ao5Upk-970-80.jpg.webp File extension webp MIME type image/webp Size 26.1 KB (26710 bytes) Downloads 642 Dimensions 970 x 546 px Uploaded by Guest Message ID 47694 Attachment type Normal attachment (0) Storage folder ID 1 Thumbnail attach ID none File hash 34469734831ea3b9c198f8f892b94f47c9b50d92 Approved Yes Filename (on disk) not found on disk Storage directory unresolved File exists on disk? No
No recorded downloads yet.

Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/supermassive-black-hole-spotted-12-9-billion-light-years-from-earth-and-its-shooting-a-beam-of-energy-right-at-us

A Supermassive black hole spotted 12.9 billion light-years from Earth — and it's shooting a beam of energy right at us

Dated: 16 Jan 2024

"The newly discovered "blazar," which has a mass equal to 700 million suns, is the oldest of its kind ever seen and changes what we know about the early universe."


Energy jets can be interpreted as shooting out of a black hole (see bottom for the artists impression)

Blazars are supermassive black holes that shoot gigantic energy jets directly at Earth.
Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole that's shooting a giant energy beam directly at Earth.

The cosmic juggernaut, which is about as massive as 700 million suns, is taking aim at us from a galaxy in the early universe, up to 800 million years after the Big Bang — making this the most distant "blazar" ever found.

Some supermassive black holes, known as quasars, are so massive they can superheat the material doom-spiraling within their accretion disk to hundreds of thousands of degrees, at which point they emit huge amounts of electromagnetic radiation.

The quasars' immense magnetic fields can sculpt this energy into twin jets that shoot out perpendicularly to accretion disks and extend well beyond their host galaxies.

By chance, some of these quasars point one of their twin jets directly at Earth, creating radio bright spots that pulse as these black holes consume matter amd are known as blazars.

In the new study, published Dec. 18, 2024, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers discovered a new blazar, dubbed J0410−0139, using data from multiple telescopes, including the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, the Magellan telescopes and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope — all located in Chile — and NASA's Chandra observatory in Earth-orbit.

Radio waves from this blazar traveled more than 12.9 billion light-years to reach us, which is a new record for this type of cosmic object.

The shining behemoth's remarkable age could enable researchers to learn more about how the first supermassive black holes took shape and how these galactic nuclei have evolved ever since.
 
An artist's interpretation of what a blazar may look like close upAt a much closer distance, blazars would be one of the brightest objcts in the night sky.

(Final image credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/B. Saxton -- at the page end.)

"The alignment of J0410−0139's jet with our line of sight allows astronomers to peer directly into the heart of this cosmic powerhouse," study co-author Emmanuel Momjian, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia, said in a statement. "This blazar offers a unique laboratory to study the interplay between jets, black holes, and their environments during one of the universe’s most transformative epochs."
 
The article continues at the source link ...