Astronomers have made a groundbreaking observation by capturing the exact moment a supermassive black hole expelled a jet of material into space. This unprecedented event occurred at the center of the galaxy 1ES 1927+654, located about 270 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Draco.
The black hole in question is approximately 1.4 billion times the mass of the Sun. According to NASA, the material was expelled at one-third the speed of light. The jet consists of two beams, each with a diameter of half a light-year.
Radio images of 1ES 1927+654, shown in animation, reveal emerging plasma jets erupting from both sides of the galaxy’s central black hole. Credit: NSF / AUI / NSF NRAO / Meyer et al. 2025
How does this phenomenon occur?
Supermassive black holes typically emit powerful jets of highly energized particles. These beams of matter are launched from the poles of the black hole and can extend across millions of light-years.
The process takes place because, as the black hole feeds on surrounding gas and dust, some of this material doesn’t fall directly into the black hole. Instead, it is accelerated by intense magnetic fields and expelled at extreme velocities.
Although the formation of such jets is well-known, the exact moment of their emergence had never been captured before. What makes this discovery so significant is that the jet from 1ES 1927+654 emerged after a powerful X-ray explosion, allowing researchers to track the entire process.
The active galaxy 1ES 1927+654, highlighted in the image, has exhibited extraordinary changes since 2018. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio – eMITS / Scott Wiessinger, University of Maryland College Park / Francis Reddy, UMBC / Sibasish Laha, NASA / GSFC / Brad Cenko
The black hole ‘woke up’ twice
The scientific interest in this black hole started in 2018, when it experienced a significant explosion detected in visible light, ultraviolet, and X-rays. After a period of apparent calm, the giant resumed emitting intense radiation in April 2023, drawing researchers’ attention once again.
A team from the University of Maryland Baltimore County decided to monitor the black hole with radio telescopes, such as the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) in New Mexico, one of the most powerful in the world. Observations between February and May 2024 revealed that a jet began to expand, becoming visible.
The first image of the jet was captured in June 2023, but without clear signs of matter ejection, likely due to the surrounding gas blocking the view. Over time, the jets grew and became detectable, reaching a length of half a light-year.
The paper describing this discovery has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters, contributing to a better understanding of the formation of these cosmic jets, one of the most extreme phenomena in the Universe.
