Black holes in the distant universe are blasting jets far more than scientists expected, according to new research from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
During what astronomers call “cosmic noon”, these cosmic cannons were fired at nearly the speed of light – after the Big Bang, galaxies and black holes grew faster than ever, about three billion years.
The discovery centers on two supermassive black holes over 11 billion light-years. Scientists have found that a jet has about half the energy of the strong light of hot air around its black holes – a ratio that shows that these ancient cosmic engines have more fists than previously thought.
Fight against physics
“We found that at this stage of the universe, some black holes may be larger than we thought,” said the Harvard and Smithsonians who led the study.
The jet’s speed moves between 92% and 99% of the speed of light. “These jets are traveling so fast that they are pushing higher towards the physical absolute speed limit (speed of light),” explains Aneta Siemignowska, co-author of the same CFA.
What makes these observations particularly striking is how Earth-based telescopes see jets. When electrons in the jets break away from the black hole, they collided with photons on the cosmic microwave background – the remaining light of the Big Bang itself. These collisions increase the energy of photons into the X-ray band, allowing Chandra to detect them over billions of light years.
Ancient light reveals modern mysteries
The cosmic microwave background is more dense than today than today, making this detection method particularly effective for studying early cosmic phenomena. “X-rays are cosmic microwave photons that amplify a million times through electrons accelerated by supermass black holes,” said Dan Schwartz, co-author of the same CFA.
The researchers used very large arrays of Chandra and Karl G. Jansky to discover jets that stretched over 300,000 light-years from the black hole. However, they found an interesting difference: X-ray emissions can obviously be traced back to the jet path, but no continuous radio signals matching the length of the X-ray jet were detected.
The scientists explained that this difference is completely reasonable. The electrons that generate radio waves do not create X-ray waves like electrons that interact through cosmic microwave backgrounds. X-ray emissions are expected to be enhanced, but radio emissions are not necessarily continuous.
Beyond the news release results
Studies have shown that these distant planes point almost directly to the Earth – within about 10 degrees of our sight. This precise alignment helps explain its excellent brightness and provides key data for understanding jet mechanics. The team used complex Bayesian analysis to break the usual mathematical impasse between a large number of motion factors and the viewing angles that long-wrecked jet studies.
Furthermore, magnetic field measurements show typical values for jets that generate X-rays through cosmic microwave background interactions, with magnetic field intensity ranging from 6 to 105 micromos depending on the viewing geometry.
Cosmic Archaeology
This study provides a unique window for the universe at noon, when most galaxies and supermassive black holes experienced the fastest growth period. Scientists can use these jet observations to explore fundamental questions about how black holes can help shape their galactic communities in this critical era.
Jets represent a large amount of energy output – a person has about 5×10^46 ERG per second, accounting for about 50% of its total light output from the black hole. This massive energy transfer suggests that these ancient jets play an important role in the evolution and feedback process of galaxy.
For one quasar, the researchers found that JET dynamics reached half of the object’s total energy output, while the other showed a smaller ratio of about 2%. These measurements can help scientists understand the relationship between black hole feeding and energy jetting during the most active period of the universe.
The discoveries, presented at the American Conference on Astronomy and published in the journal Astrophysics, provide new insights into how the universe’s most powerful engine operates during its growth.
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