The length of our galaxy is 230… View of the largest ‘black hole’ ever seen

Advertisement by the California Institute of Technology research team
Surrounding matter – attracts light and spreads it like a jet
“A key component in the study of the process of creation of the universe”

A picture simulating the appearance of ‘Porphyrion’, the longest black hole jet seen to date. Porphyrion is the name of a giant in Greek mythology. Provided by E. Wernquist / D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration) / M. Oei Black holes are known to capture and attract even light with their strong gravity, but in some black holes, there is a ‘jet’ phenomenon in which radiation and matter are strong. that could happen. Scientists have succeeded in discovering the largest black hole jet ever seen. Until now, the size of the black hole jet was known not to exceed 5Mpc (megaparsec, 1Mpc is about 3.26 million light years), but this is the first time a black hole jet larger than 6.8Mpc has been observed.

Martin Uy A team of researchers from the Department of Observational Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) discovered that the length of the black hole jet ‘Porphyrion’ is about 23 million light years and published the results of the research in the academic journal international ‘Nature’ on the 18th (local time). One light year is the distance traveled in one year at the speed of light (about 300,000 km per second). 23 million light years is the distance equal to about 230 galaxies lined up when measured as 100,000 light years across the diameter of our galaxy, where our solar system is located.

In some supermassive black holes, jets are observed that emit powerful radiation and gas and liquid materials on both sides of the selection disk, which are created when surrounding material or light is attracted. The jet passes through a narrow nozzle-like structure and is emitted at high speed. It is known that the initial speed of the jet emitted from the M87 black hole in the center of our galaxy is over 80% of the speed of light.

In a previous study, the research team discovered a jet black hole 7.5 billion light years away from Earth using LOFAR, the European low frequency radio telescope network, and named it after Porphyrion, a giant in Greek mythology. Later, thanks to the discovery of the galaxy where Porphyrion originated, the galaxy with the black hole from which the Porphyrion jet originated was analyzed as a massive galaxy about 10 times larger than our galaxy.

An initial analysis of telescope observational data showed that the total length of the jet was expected to be at least 6.43 Mpc. However, as a result of detailed calculations using mathematical modelling, the total length of the porphyrion was found to be 6.8 to 7.3 Mpc, which is larger than originally thought. According to the existing research, it is unlikely that the size of the black hole will exceed 5 Mpc.

Black hole jets are a physical phenomenon worth studying in their own right because they cause things to move in real environments. It lasts a long time and affects the flow of galactic matter. It has an important role in studying the process of the creation of the universe, including black holes and galaxies.

“The results of this study mean that jets of black holes in the center of a galaxy can release a lot of energy that affects the growth not only of that galaxy but of other galaxies,” said George Djorgowski, a professor in The Department of Astronomy and Data Science at Caltech participated in the study.

The research team believed that the impact of black hole jets would have been greater, especially in the ‘young universe’. Researcher Ui explained, “The activity of a black hole may have affected every place in the universe at a certain time.” It is being studied that black hole jets can spread heat and magnetic fields throughout the universe outside galaxies. Researcher Ui said, “The magnetic field that allowed life to thrive on Earth travels through galaxies and stars to reach the planets,” and added, “I want to understand if a massive black hole jet will spread the field.” magnetic around the globe. “

It is not yet known how Porphyrion black hole jets can extend so far without becoming unstable. The research team said, “More research is needed to understand how supermassive black hole jets like Porphyrion are stable,” and added, “We believe that there are many more supermassive black hole jets in the universe.”