For about 15 years, a powerful radio telescope on Earth monitored a spot in space billions of light-years away. Recently, astronomers pieced together this long stream of data to reveal an astonishing view of what the telescope was observing.
You might think it looks like the “Eye of Sauron” from The Lord of the Rings, but this is something entirely different. What we’re seeing is a blazar, a type of astronomical phenomenon.
To explain further, blazars are a special kind of quasar. Quasars are incredibly bright regions at the centers of active galaxies. They are powered by supermassive black holes and emit a huge amount of energy. These black holes can push out jets of particles traveling close to the speed of light. It’s an awe-inspiring sight.
Blazars are quasars whose jets are pointed towards us, making them appear even brighter. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean we’re in danger—it’s just how they appear from our viewpoint. In fact, these jets can make blazars shine up to 30 times brighter than other quasars.
Yuri Kovalev, the lead author of the study and head of the Multi-messenger Studies of Extragalactic Super-colliders project, described the image as “absolutely stunning.” He noted they had never seen anything quite like it—a nearly perfect magnetic field with a jet shooting straight at us.
Jack Livingston, a co-author of the study, explains how this orientation tricks our perception. The jet may seem to move slowly due to something called projection effects, which is similar to an optical illusion.
The blazar in focus, known as PKS 1424+240, is now considered one of the brightest sources of high-energy gamma rays and cosmic neutrinos ever detected. Neutrinos are fascinating particles—they pass through everything but are extremely hard to catch. Trillions of them are passing through your body right now without you even noticing.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica first discovered PKS 1424+240 because of its high neutrino emissions. This finding supports a significant idea: active galactic nuclei with supermassive black holes not only accelerate electrons but also protons, contributing to the creation of high-energy neutrinos.
Understanding how blazars work can greatly help scientists learn more about these cosmic wonders. Kovalev emphasizes this discovery allows for deeper insight into the mechanics of jets from supermassive black holes.
This exciting research was published on August 12 in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters. For more details, you can check out the full study here.
The universe continues to reveal its secrets, and each new discovery brings with it more questions and possibilities.
