Science

Astronomers discover biggest ever seen black hole jets, which blast hot plasma well beyond their own host galaxy

January 2, 2025
gargantuan-black-hole

Astronomers have spotted the biggest pair of black hole jets ever seen, spanning 23 million light-years in total length. That's equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back.

"This pair is not just the size of a solar system, or a Milky Way; we are talking about 140 Milky Way diameters in total," says Martijn Oei, a Caltech postdoctoral scholar and lead author of a Nature paper reporting the findings. "The Milky Way would be a little dot in these two giant eruptions."