Porphyrion is the longest black hole jet system ever observed. Credit: E. Wernquist / D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration) / M. Oei
The biggest black hole jets ever seen span 140 Milky Way galaxies!
Astronomers have just spotted the largest black hole jets ever observed and named them Porphyrion, after a giant from Greek mythology. This cosmic structure, formed when the universe was 6.3 billion years old, stretches across a distance equivalent to 140 Milky Ways.
These jets released energy equal to trillions of suns, spanning 23 million light-years. Before this discovery, the largest known jet system was Alcyoneus, found in 2022, covering 100 Milky Ways. In comparison, Centaurus A, the closest jet system to Earth, stretches 10 Milky Way.
An illustration and digital image showing how these jet systems extend through the cosmic web. Illustration: Martijn Oei (Caltech) / Dylan Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration).
This discovery hints that such massive jets may have played a larger role in shaping early galaxies than previously thought. Porphyrion emerged during a time when galaxies were more tightly connected by the cosmic web, allowing its jets to extend across a greater portion of this early structure than jets in today’s universe.
The study describing the jet megastructure is published in Nature.
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