| J152932.16+601534.4 | |
|---|---|
 Radio image of Porphyrion, a black hole jet system spanning an estimated 23 million light-years. The image, taken with the LOFAR HBA at a central observing frequency of 144 MHz, has an effective resolution of 6.2" and covers 15' × 15' of sky. The Milky Way (assumed diameter: 50 kpc) is shown for scale. | |
| Observation data (J2000epoch) | |
| Constellation | Draco |
| Right ascension | 15h 29m 32.16s |
| Declination | +60° 15′ 34.4″ |
| Redshift | 0.896±0.001 |
| Distance | 7.5 billion light-years |
| Notable features | Giantradio galaxy |
| Other designations | |
| Porphyrion, J152932.16+601534.4 | |
References:[1] | |
Porphyrion is aFanaroff–Riley class IIradio galaxy located 7.5 billion light years away from Earth, with host galaxyJ152932.16+601534.4. It is located in theconstellationDraco and it was discovered inLow-Frequency Array (LOFAR) data by an international team led by Martijn Oei.[2] Porphyrion has the longest jets of any radio galaxy identified, with lobed structures spanning 7megaparsecs (23 millionlight-years) across, making it the largest known structure of galactic origin. It supersededAlcyoneus, discovered by the same team in 2022, with lobed structures of 5 megaparsecs (16 million light-years).[3]
Porphyrion was first reported in a paper inNature by Martijn Oei (Leiden University/Caltech) and colleagues, which featured on the cover of the 19 September 2024 issue, after obtaining results from theLow Frequency Array (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS), an interferometric radio survey of the Northern Sky.[1] Porphyrion was part of a large number of new giant radio galaxies discovered by this team.[4][5] The giant black hole jet system was named afterPorphyrion, aGiant from Greek mythology, by co-discoverer Aivin Gast from theUniversity of Oxford.[6]
To find the galaxy from which Porphyrion originated, theGiant Metrewave Radio Telescope inIndia was used along with ancillary data from theDark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument inArizona. The observations pinpointed to the galaxy J152932.16+601534.4, which is about 10 times more massive than theMilky Way.[1][6]
The team reporting the discovery described Porphyrion as a 'black hole jets system', rather than a giantradio galaxy, as they considered the latter a confusing term: the jet structure of a radio galaxy is not formally part of the galaxy proper.[1] Radio galaxies are a special class of objects characterized by the presence of radio lobes generated byrelativistic jets powered by the central galaxy'ssupermassive black hole. Giant radio galaxies are different from ordinary radio galaxies in that they can extend to much larger scales, reaching upwards to several megaparsecs across, far larger than the diameters of their host galaxies.
TheW. M. Keck Observatory onHawaii was used to show that Porphyrion is 7.5 billion light-years from Earth, and dates to a time when the universe was 6.3 billion years old. The observations also revealed that Porphyrion emerged from a radiative-mode active black hole, as opposed to one in a jet-mode state.[6][7] Porphyrion's two jets combined have a jet power of 1039 watts, equivalent to the energy output of trillions of suns.[8]
Oei and his colleagues believe that "every place in the universe may have been affected by black hole activity at some point in cosmic time".[6] They suggest that giant jet systems like Porphyrion may have had a larger influence on the formation of galaxies in the young universe than previously believed, and suggest that these giant jets could have spread magnetism through the cosmos.[6]
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