Galactic Jet
Galactic Jet
Image courtesy T. Pyle, JPL-Caltech/NASA
Powerful jets of gas shoot out from the center of a galaxy in an artist's depiction. Such jets are produced as orbiting matter falls into the supermassive black holes at the centers of every galaxy.
The closer matter gets to a supermassive black hole, the more gravity compresses the matter. As a result, radiation spews outward and gets corralled into high-speed jets by nearby magnetic fields. (Related: "'Death Star' Galaxy Found Blasting Smaller Neighbor.")
A new study suggests that the most powerful jets come from "backward" black holes—those that spin in opposite directions from their host galaxies. That's because the backward rotation puts more space between the black hole and the orbiting matter, leaving more room for magnetic fields to build up, the study authors say.
Published June 1, 2010
