Bizarre black hole is blasting a jet of plasma right at a neighboring galaxy

A black hole at the center of a distant galaxy is shooting a jet of gas and particles into another.

A black hole is bombarding another black hole in the same space. Near 1 billion light-years from Earth, the two galaxies are in the middle of a merger.

It's the first time a jet has been seen emerging from the center of one galaxy and hitting another.

There is a black hole that is sending jets into space.

Astrophysical jets are made of ionized gas and electrons and are usually seen in pairs moving in opposite directions. The situation in RAD12 is unique due to the fact that the black hole appears to be only sending one jet towards the other. A mystery surrounds why this jet is alone.

The unique system could have implications for how star formation is quenched, as astrophysical jets have been known to drive out cold gas that forms the building blocks for star birth. Ananda Hota, an assistant professor in the University of Mumbai Department of Atomic Energy in India, said in a statement that they were excited to have spotted a rare system that helped them understand radio jet feedback of supermassive black holes.

In both optical and radio data from the Very Large array first survey, there was a strange plane in the sky. The strange behavior of the galaxy was confirmed by follow-up observations conducted by Hota and colleagues using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India.

While a conical stream of fresh, young plasma can be seen as it is ejected from the heart of RAD 12 and out past the galaxy's visible stars, observations collected using the GMRT showed fainter and older plasma extending beyond this stream.

The data from various telescopes suggests that the radio jet in RAD12 is colliding with a companion.

Hota noted that the public played a large role in the study of RAD 12. Thousands of citizen scientists and students contributed to the first Indian citizen science research platform.

The team's work was published in the journal in October.

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