WASHINGTON: The Hubble Space Telescope has witnessed a collision between two jets of matter racing outward from a black hole at 98 percent of the speed of light. This is the first time ever that astronomers have witnessed such an event.
The black hole in the radio galaxy NGC 3862 is located roughly 260 million light years away from our own Milky Way.
Light saber-like jets emanating from galaxies can appear to be racing toward Earth significantly faster than the speed of light, a condition that is forbidden by the Special Theory of Relativity. This apparent violation of the laws of physics is due to an optical illusion, and astronomers hope this new finding helps them learn more about this strange effect.
Extra-galactic jets, which shoot material from the active nucleus of a galaxy in a thin beam, are not well understood. Analysis of the new data suggests that collisions within the beams accelerate material within their structure and increase the brightness of the gas.
Galaxy NGC 3862 was observed by Hubble several times over the course of 20 years. Astronomers used these images to create a video showing movement of the material away from the elliptical galaxy.
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