NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captured an image of a black hole jet running into an unidentified object, called C4. Astronomers made this discovery in a galaxy called Centaurus A (Cen A), located approximately 12 million light-years from Earth.
Cen A has long been a point of interest for astronomers because it has a supermassive black hole in its center sending out jets that stretch out across the entire galaxy. The black hole launches this jet of high-energy particles not from within, but rather from intense gravitational and magnetic fields around it. The unidentified object, C4, is located close to the path of the jet from the supermassive black hole and the arms of the “V” are at least about 700 light-years long. Just for reference, the nearest star to Earth is around 4 light-years away.
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This is not the first time astronomers have seen a black hole jet running into other objects in Cen A. There are several other examples where a jet appears to be striking objects — possibly massive stars or gas clouds. However, C4 stands out from these by having the V-shape in X-rays, while other obstacles in the jet’s path produce elliptical blobs in the X-ray image,” said the Chandra Mission Team.
