New Space Observatory Helps Solve Mystery Involving Enormous Black Holes

The IXPE spacecraft (R) observes a blazar, a black hole surrounded by a disk of gas and dust with a bright jet of high-energy particles pointed toward Earth, called Markarian 501 in an undated illustration. (Pablo Garcia (NASA/MSFC)/Handout via Reuters)

WASHINGTON—Most galaxies are built around humongous black holes. While many of these are comparatively docile, like the one at our Milky Way’s center, some are fierce—guzzling surrounding material and unleashing huge and blazingly bright jets of high-energy particles far into space.

Using data from the recently deployed Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) orbiting observatory, researchers on Wednesday offered an explanation for how these jets become so luminous: subatomic particles called electrons becoming energized by shock waves moving at supersonic speed away from the black hole.