The jet is at least 200,000 light-years long, making it twice the width of the Milky Way.
It formed when the universe was less than 10% its current age of roughly13.77 billion years.
The teams research describing the jet ispublishedtoday inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters.
An artist’s concept of the largest radio jet ever found in the early universe.Illustration: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick
The recently studied jet spews out from a quasar, or an energetic galactic core, dubbed J1601+3102.
The quasar in question is relatively smalljust 450 million times the mass of our Sun.
Thus, the extremity of the jet is a surprise compared to its relatively modest host.
The quasar jet. Image: LOFAR/DECaLS/DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURAImage processing: M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Thats more than ten times the size of J1601+3102s jet.
However, Gloudemans team can only see J1601+3102s jet as it appears at this moment in the early universe.
Porphyrion is an extremely large giant at a distance of about 7.5 billion light years, Gloudemans said.
An artist’s impression of the gigantic black hole jet system extending through the cosmos. Illustration: E. Wernquist / D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration) / M. Oei
Plenty of questions remain, including how jets are formed by their environments and in turn shape them.
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