Black hole jet changes direction as astronomers watch in cosmic first -- and it's aimed right at us

By Sharmila Kuthunur published about 4 hours ago

This is "a very exceptional case of jet reorientation," astronomers say.



An artist's concept of a feeding supermassive black hole with a jet streaming outward at nearly the speed of light.

A powerful jet streaming from an active galactic black hole that is devouring huge amounts of matter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)


For the first time, astronomers have spotted a jet blasting from the core of a distant galaxy that has changed directions.

About 1% of the supermassive black holes, which reside at the center of most galaxies, have disks of gas and dust swirling around them. Debris from this disk that ventures toward growing black holes blasts out powerful jets at light-like speeds in random directions. These jets push out massive amounts of energy into nearby areas and help shape galaxies over eons, so one of the ways astronomers classify galaxies is based on how such jets are oriented.

For example, when galaxy cores have jets of charged particles beaming out perpendicularly when seen from Earth, they are called quasars. Sometimes, jets are aimed directly at Earth, and such galaxy cores are called blazars. While astronomers know that quasars and blazars exist, the latest finding is the first time they have observed a galaxy in the former group transform into the latter.

The finding comes from a distant galaxy named PBC J2333.9-2343, whose core had blasted jets in the past but had long gone quiet. In the latest research, astronomers found that the core had once again stirred the jets back to life, one of which had "drastically" changed directions. The galaxy, which spans four million light-years and is located about 656 million light-years away from Earth, shines strongly in radio wavelengths and is thus called a radio galaxy. Given the sharp change in the jet's orientation, astronomers have redefined the giant radio galaxy into one with a blazar at its center.

More:
https://www.space.com/first-observation-of-black-hole-jet-direction-change?utm_source=notification