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Space
Space
Science
Robert Lea

X-ray spacecraft finds supermassive black hole stirring up the 'red potato' galaxy: 'There may be a cook in this cosmic kitchen'

The Red Poatato galaxy MQN01 J004131.9-493704.

Using the Chandra X-ray spacecraft, astronomers have seen a supermassive black hole jet churning and "cooking" gas surrounding a galaxy nicknamed the "red potato." And this potato is seen as it was when the universe was around 2 billion years old.

The galaxy in question is officially designated MQN01 J004131.9-493704 and is located about 11.7 billion light-years from Earth at the intersection of a vast cosmic web along which galaxies formed in the early universe. Originally discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the odd, blob-like appearance of the galaxy is why it has such a peculiar nickname.

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