Is this a jet stream??
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by sanket.tillu
Is this a jet stream coming from a black hole??
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by JeanTate
Welcome to Radio Galaxy Zoo, sanket.tillu! 😃
This is a #triple, which is a #core and two #lobes. The host is a galaxy with the name SDSS J150928.13+303521.6. It has a spectroscopic redshift of 0.359, which puts it at between 3.4 and 6.2 billion light-years away (the huge range is due to the fact that, at these distances, there is no single measure of distance ... an inevitable consequence of General Relativity).
Here's what the galaxy looks like, in SDSS:
Yes, at the heart of this galaxy - "nucleus" in astronomer-speak - is a supermassive black hole. And streaming from its poles (very likely) are two jets of incredibly energetic particles ... kinda like the Large Hadron Collider, only vastly more powerful. These jets plow into the medium between galaxies, and heat it up; this produces the lobes.
Hope this helps, and happy hunting! 😃
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by 42jkb scientist, admin in response to JeanTate's comment.
Excellent description JeanTate!
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