Posted on 03/30/2023 8:05:03 AM PDT by BenLurkin
In a distant galaxy, a supermassive black hole spewing radiation at near light speed has shifted its angle by a whopping 90 degrees to point directly toward Earth — a sharp turn that's puzzling physicists.
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the hungry black holes at the cores of many other galaxies, and they accrete matter and spew powerful jets of high-energy particles known as relativistic jets. AGN are classified according to what part of the AGN is pointed toward Earth.
The researchers also observed two lobes — areas where an AGN's jets interact with surrounding gas — where some jets had previously made their mark. This blazar's lobes are "very old," however, Hernández-García said, adding that "they are the relics of past activity, whereas the structures located closer to the nucleus represent younger and active jets."
These dormant lobes are evidence that the jets have, in fact, changed direction. It's not totally unprecedented for a galaxy's jets to appear in different places. But in prior examples, there were two sets of lobes, meaning two separate jets turning on and off. For PBC J2333.9-2343, it appears that there is only one source of activity, and it has changed tack.
PBC J2333.9-2343, a large galaxy about 4 million light-years across, was previously classified as a radio galaxy, meaning its AGN's gargantuan jets of radiation were pointed perpendicular to our line of sight. But new research published March 20 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society(opens in new tab) reclassifies the galaxy as a blazar, meaning the black hole's jets are now pointed directly at Earth. This means the galaxy's jets shifted by a "dramatic" degree, the researchers wrote in the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
It’s a holdup.
Or we’re being arrested. We need to put our hands where they can see ‘em.
Maybe the black hole will suck us in and put us out of our misery. Lol
I didn’t know you could point a black hole. Good to know. Next time I’ll sneak up on one from behind.
wormwood?
It's not the gravity that's the issue, per se. It's the particle and x-ray jets that stream from these black beauties. Though at 950 million light years from Earth it will be some time before we need to worry about it. If were still around here in 950 million years.
We are gonna be sucked into this “black hole” on Saturday, April 1st...No foolin’....
Al Gore has been warning us about this! He’s making another movie to scare another generation of children to become activists in this new global warming cause. The world uses too much energy! Shut down everything! We are attracting black holes!!!!
C’mon... stop referring to Stacey Abams that way.
The article really wants us to know that “it’s pointed at Earth.” It says that 6 times.
Are we supposed to be afraid?
If it has shifted, and is now “pointing directly at Earth,” then it will continue to shift until it’s no longer pointing at Earth. Looks like we have nothing to worry about.
A waste of an article.
Hurry up.
But if they can detect the repositioning today, doesn’t that mean the shift occurred 950 million years ago?
Well, so are most articles these days, but they have entertainment value. What else would we do with our time if we couldn't poke fun at the idiot voters?
I could believe this!
This world is in a buttload of trouble for sure.
I told those people there’d be trouble when they demoted Pluto and now look what’s happened.
So, the science wasn’t “settled” after all?
Thanks for the info. It’s interesting and it’s a good thing we’re so far away.
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