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I will never tire of writing about supermassive black holes, especially when one launches out a beam of matter and energy so powerful it can cause stars to be born *in other galaxies*. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-wind-from-a-galaxys-supermassive-black-hole-helps-make-stars-in-other-galaxies
2/ Seriously. This blackhole sits in the center of a galaxy. It’s maybe 200 million km wide… but the beam it blasts out is well over A MILLION LIGHT YEARS LONG.
3/ That’s a scale factor of 50 *billion*. The beam is so soul-crushingly powerful that just the shock wave from it ramming through material between galaxies is causing stars to form in neighboring galaxies. It’s not even directly doing that. It’s a side gig.
4/ Anyway, that 50 billion scale factor is killing me. To scale, it’s like having a small grape shoot out a beam that stretches from the Earth to well past the Moon.
That would be a terrifying grape.
That would be a terrifying grape.
5/ A black hole jet has never been seen to cause star formation in other galaxies before, so this is very cool. It’s also interesting to think about how the ultimate machine of destruction in the cosmos can be a source of creation as well.
6/6 So there’s a fun thought to kick off the holiday season, and maybe give you a better conversation topic at the dinner table than what your uncle wants to talk about. My gift to you.
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-wind-from-a-galaxys-supermassive-black-hole-helps-make-stars-in-other-galaxies
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https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-wind-from-a-galaxys-supermassive-black-hole-helps-make-stars-in-other-galaxies
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