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Why do Jets Emanate from Quasars and Black Holes?

06/22/2006 11:47PM

Why do Jets Emanate from Quasars and Black Holes?

Teams of astronomers at Yale and the University of Southampton have obtained key infrared and X-Ray observations that reveal the nature of quasar particle jets that emanate from supermassive black holes and radiate across the spectrum from radio to X-ray wavelengths, often at velocities very close to the speed of light. These findings are causing a radical rethink of the physics behind relativistic jets that emanate from Quasars and Black Holes.


Comments:

What would happen if, due to an intergalactic collision, the reformed disk of a spiral ended up at an angle to the rotational (and emissive) axis of its supermassive black hole? If the angle were 90 degrees so that the jet flew through the spiral itself, what (hypothetically) would be the result- star formation, megadeath? How far would such a beam travel given the matter in the way? Again all hypothetical- I don't know whether the scenario is even plausible (but then again, 20 years ago Berkeley astronomers told me that black holes couldn't possibly ever collide, so there was no point in speculation).<br><br>Jess Tauber