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LiveScience
LiveScience
Skyler Ware

'Very rare' black hole energy jet discovered tearing through a spiral galaxy shaped like our own

The giant radio jets stretching around 5 million light-years across and an enormous supermassive black hole at the heart of a spiral galaxy.

Nearly a billion light-years away, a massive spiral galaxy is screaming into the void.

The behemoth, nicknamed J2345-0449, is a giant radio galaxy, or "super spiral" galaxy roughly three times the size of the Milky Way. Like our own spiral galaxy, it harbors a supermassive black hole at its center. But unlike the Milky Way's center, J2345-0449's supermassive black hole emits powerful radio jets — streams of fast-moving charged particles that emit radio waves — stretching more than 5 million light-years long.

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