November 23, 2013

Evidence of jet of high-energy particles from Milky Way's black hole found by astronomers


For decades, astronomers have sought strong evidence that the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is producing a jet of high-energy particles. Based on new results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope, they now have it.

Previous studies that used a variety of telescopes suggested there was a jet, but these reports, including the orientation of the suspected jets, often contradicted one another and were not considered definitive.