News Astronomy

Here’s why some supermassive black holes blaze so brightly

Astronomers saw a telltale signature of shock waves shooting along a jet

An illustration of an active black hole with a jet of charged particles shooting out into space, a blazar

Blazars (one illustrated) are active black holes that shoot jets of charged particles into space. New work shows how order and chaos in those jets can launch the particles.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

By Lisa Grossman

- More than 2 years ago

For the first time, astronomers have observed how certain supermassive black holes launch jets of high-energy particles into space — and the process is shocking.