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IMAGE: The main panel of this graphic is an artist's illustration of a
close-up view of a quasar and its jet, like the one in PJ352-52. The inset contains X-ray data from
Chandra...
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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/JPL/T. Connor; Optical: Gemini/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Infrared: W.M. Keck
Observatory; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Astronomers have discovered evidence for an extraordinarily long jet of particles coming from a supermassive black hole in the early universe, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
If confirmed, it would be the most distant supermassive black hole with a jet detected in X-rays. Coming from a galaxy about 12.7 billion light-years from Earth, the jet may help explain how the biggest black holes formed at a very early time in the universe's history.