A supermassive black hole is firing high-energy particle jet towards Earth

Markarian 421, a supermassive black hole, is firing a jet of high-energy particles aimed directly at Earth.

Artist's concept of the supermassive black hole emitting a jet of particles. (NASA/Pablo Garcia)

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Supermassive black holes sometimes create powerful jets of high-energy particles which stand out as bright rays in the vast darkness of space. Markarian 421, one such supermassive black hole, is firing those particles directly towards our planet.

Supermassive black holes that are active at the centres of galaxies (active galactic nuclei) are surrounded by “accretion disks” that feed them. But not all the material in the accretion discs ends up being consumed by the black hole. Some of it is channelled towards the black hole’s “poles” and blasted out at a speed near that of light, according to Space.com.

The “blazar,” which is the name given to black hole systems that have jets pointed at Earth, is about 400 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, according to NASA.

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Jets like the one being sent out by Markarian 421 can measure millions of light-years in length. They are also often exceptionally bright since particles approach the speed of light. When observed, blazars appear exceptionally bright since they are pointed towards us. This works on the same principle that makes an approaching ambulance siren feel louder. The result here is that blazars can outshine all the stars in the galaxy that they inhabit.

Past research has indicated that the outflow of such powerful jets usually have a spiralling helix structure, not very different from the way in which human DNA is organised. But scientists did not expect that the helix structure would have particles being accelerated by shocks. This could mean that a shockwave could be propagating along with spiralling magnetic fields inside the jet.

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