By Opposing fountains of plasma and particles spanning 23 million light-years are the longest pair of black hole jets ever seen. That’s far enough to influence the evolution of the universe on cosmic scales, astronomers report September 18 in Nature.
“Traditionally, astronomers believed all jets remain within, or at least very close to, their host galaxy,” said astrophysicist Martijn Oei of Caltech in a news conference on September 16. “We present evidence that supermassive black holes don’t only hold sway over the galaxy, but also of the cosmic web that surrounds them.”
