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A Massive Virtual Radio Telescope Spots A Ribbon-like Jet Of Super-heated Plasma

August 29, 2025
A Massive Virtual Radio Telescope Spots A Ribbon-like Jet Of Super-heated Plasma
By Evan Gough (https://ift.tt/EP0U19B)

Left: The RadioAstron Space VLBI mission combined a spaceborne radio telescope (Spektr-R) with 27 ground-based radio telescopes worldwide to create a virtual telescope five times the Earth’s diameter, in an observation of the enigmatic quasar OJ 287. Right: Progressive zoom into OJ 287’s jet at increasing resolution. Top: 15 GHz VLBA (18 pc scale). Middle: 43 GHz VLBI (4.5 pc scale). Bottom: 22 GHz RadioAstron (1.8 pc scale), revealing the ribbon-like structure with multiple sharp bends for the first time. Image Credit: Juan Carlos Algaba, Universiti Malaya

Astronomers used a powerful virtual radio telescope to observe a distant active galaxy. The observations revealed a ribbon-like jet of super-heated plasma. The plasma reaches temperatures of more than 10 trillion Kelvin, indicating that a pair of supermassive black holes are energizing the center of the galaxy.



August 30, 2025 at 01:16AM
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