Enigmatic Spiral Galaxy Jet Is Still a Big Mystery to Astronomers

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning image last year, showing several galaxies located about 5.94 billion light-years from Earth. While the galaxies are fascinating, what has really caught the attention of scientists isn’t visible in the picture but can be detected through radio waves.

A massive jet is blasting from the center of one of these galaxies. This jet is linked to a supermassive black hole, more than 400 million times the mass of our sun.

As Space.com reports, scientists believe that studying this jet could provide new insights into how galaxies and black holes grow and evolve together over long periods of time. But first, they need to figure out how this jet came to be.

Typically, jets like these come from elliptical galaxies, which are formed by chaotic mergers with other galaxies. These mergers drive gas and dust into the black holes, fueling the jets.

However, in this case, the central galaxy hosting the jet, a quasar named J0742+2704, shows spiral arms, which are usually associated with more peaceful formations. This unexpected discovery has raised new questions about what could have triggered the jet in this spiral galaxy.

Olivia Achenbach from the United States Naval Academy shared her initial reaction during a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Maryland. ‘At first, I thought I completely messed up during our research,’ Achenbach admitted. ‘Because it’s such a large supermassive black hole at the center, we’d predicted we’d see an elliptical galaxy.’

J0742+2704 was found to have a ‘newborn’ jet in 2020, based on both new and old radio surveys. These surveys showed that the jet had only recently ‘switched on’ in the past two decades.

Understanding these galactic jets is crucial not just for astronomers, but also for the U.S. Navy, which uses quasars like J0742+2704 as reference points for navigation in areas where GPS isn’t reliable. The jet’s presence can shift the apparent position of the quasar, making accurate navigation more challenging.

‘We don’t really understand the physics of these quasars or their jets,’ Achenbach explained. ‘It’s really important to understand this physics to maintain navigation systems.’

This discovery could lead to a better grasp of these powerful jets and their impact on both our understanding of the universe and practical technologies here on Earth.

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