NASA’s IXPE Mission Discovers Markarian Blazar 421: A Powerful Jet Aimed at Earth

Illustration showing the Markarian blazar 421 as seen by NASA’s IXPE mission, blasting off high-energy jets. Image: NASA/Pablo Garcia

SPACE — A NASA mission has scooped up a supermassive black hole that is directing a highly energetic jet toward Earth. However, don’t panic just yet. As frightening as the cosmic event may be, the perpetrator is located at a very safe distance from Earth, some 400 million light years.

The supermassive black hole is surrounded by an accretion disk, which is material swirling around to form a disk. Gradually, the material is ‘eaten’ by the black hole over time. Some of the material they didn’t engulf is then piped to the poles, where it is detonated at near-light, or relativistic, speed. The explosion created very strong and bright electromagnetic radiation. These jet launch events are known as blazars. In some cases, such as one recently discovered by NASA, the jets are pointed directly at Earth.

The newest blazar, which is named Markarian 421 and is located in the constellation Ursa Major, was observed with NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), which launched in December 2021. IXPE observes a property of the magnetic field called polarization, which refers to the orientation of the field. The polarization of the jet blasted by Markarian 421 was a surprise to astronomers, as it showed that the part of the jet where the particles are accelerating also hosts a magnetic field with a helical structure.

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Blazar jets can traverse space for millions of light years. However, astronomers do not yet understand very well about the mechanisms that launch such jets. It is hoped that this new discovery about the Markarian 421 jet can explain this extreme cosmic phenomenon.

“Markarian 421 is a longtime friend of high-energy astronomers.

We believe the blazar will be a valuable target for IXPE,” said Laura Di Gesu, lead researcher of the study that discovered Markarian 421 and astrophysicist of the Italian Space Agency.

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2023-07-30 12:00:49
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