Astronomers have captured an ethereal image of an ancient, colossal black hole that emitted immense energy jets into the primordial universe. The structure of ether is visible only due to the “afterglow” of the Big Bang and the crucial NASA space telescope that may soon be permanently decommissioned.
The striking image displays the light from Quasar J1610+1811, which has been traveling to Earth for approximately 11.6 billion years. “Noon in the Universe” refers to an era 2-3 billion years post-Big Bang. This quasar houses an extraordinarily massive Black Hole that launched massive, lightsaber-like energy beams vertically from its swirling accretion disc. However, despite its discovery in 2018, researchers have yet to thoroughly investigate the energy jets originating from J1610+1811.
The newly acquired images were captured at NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory utilizing the Electromagnetic Spectrum. This research was submitted to a Preprint server on arxiv on April 13 and has been accepted for future publication in The Astrophysical Journal. The findings were also presented at the 246th American Astronomical Society conference held in Anchorage, Alaska, from June 8 to June 12.
Utilizing the new images, the team estimated that the quasar jet spans over 300,000 light years in the Milky Way. High-energy particles within the jets can travel at speeds ranging from 92% to 98% of light speed.
“The jet of J1610+1811 is extraordinarily potent and carries nearly half the energy of the intense light produced by the hot gas orbiting the black hole,” wrote a NASA representative in a statement. “It is among the most rapid and heated phenomena” in the universe.
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Despite their immeasurable might, jets like J1610+1811 often appear faint due to a peculiar aspect of relativity. Yet, Chandra was able to detect this jet because “it is illuminated by the afterglow of the Big Bang itself,” stated a NASA representative. This afterglow represents the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which is the residual radiation from the moment of the universe’s inception. It permeates the entire cosmos.
During peak times in the universe, the CMB was significantly denser than what is detectable from Earth today, generating static-like sounds on radio frequencies and visual artifacts on older televisions. When electrons from black hole jets collide with CMB photons, they accelerate these light particles into X-rays, enabling Chandra to detect them.
Without the high density of the CMB during this epoch, the quasar wouldn’t have emitted X-ray light, rendering the resulting image unattainable.
Throughout the research, the team captured an even more detailed image of another quasar, J1405+0415. These new findings could provide valuable insights into why quasars and other supermassive black holes expanded more rapidly and significantly during this era than at any other time in the cosmos’ history.
X-ray “Extinction”
Chandra, launched in July 1999, has fundamentally transformed X-ray astronomy. Even today, it continues to make groundbreaking discoveries, such as a fracture of the universe and an unprecedented type of pulsar.
However, the future of this space telescope is uncertain, particularly considering the NASA funding challenges anticipated in 2024 and the budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration in 2026, which could represent the most significant reductions in the agency’s history. Approval of these cuts could lead to Chandra being permanently deactivated.
According to reports, the loss of Chandra would constitute an “extinction level event” in U.S. X-ray astronomy. savechandra.org.
“It’s alarming to think of Chandra being shut down before its time,” stated Andrew Fabian, an X-ray astronomer at Cambridge University, as reported by Science Magazine in 2024.
“If you start implementing deep cuts suddenly, you risk losing an entire generation [of X-ray astronomers],” added Elisa Costantini, an astronomer from the Dutch Space Institute, in an interview with Science. This could create a significant “knowledge gap” in high-energy astrophysics, she warned.
Source: www.livescience.com