A Black Hole Is Pointing at Us

Podcast: Star Trails: From Backyard Astronomy to Cosmic Wonder · Single Malt Sky

Opublikowano: 2026-10-04

A black hole in our galaxy appears to be aiming a relativistic jet almost directly toward Earth. That sounds like a reasonably good opening line for October. The object, IRAS 18293−0941, is a binary system about 12,000 light-years away. A stellar-mass black hole is feeding on material from a massive companion star and launching jets at no less than roughly two-thirds the speed of light. Because one jet is directed close to our line of sight, astronomers believe they may have found the Milky Way's first convincing microblazar—a miniature version of the blazars powered by supermassive black holes in d...