A team of astronomers using the Very Long Baseline Array observed galaxy PSO J0309+27 and captured previously unseen detail in the jet of material being ejected. This galaxy is what is known as a blazar, which is an active galaxy whose jets are pointed in the direction of our solar system. This blazar happens to be the brightest radio-emitting one seen at such a distance — 12.8 billion light-years away. At that point in time, our universe was less than a billion years old.

The brightest part of the radio transmission is at the bottom right of the image, where the galaxy’s core is located. The jet then extends up to the left from the core, propelled by the supermassive black hole’s gravitational energy. The jet becomes thinner and less bright, as seen in the image, and the entire length is about 1600 light-years. Incredibly, you can see some structure within the jet.

The galaxy and its jet were observed by the team in April and May of last year, and the observations may help us understand the rarity of blazars in the early universe. The full paper may be found in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

More Information

NRAO image release 

“Parsec-scale properties of the radio brightest jetted AGN at z > 6,” C. Spingola et al., 2020 November 11, Astronomy & Astrophysics