One key characteristic of a supermassive black hole is the duo of the extragalactic jets of material that form around its axis of rotation. A new study reveals that one such pair of jets, belonging to a black hole some 7.

The jets of material that spew from black holes catalyze stellar eruptions, surprising astronomers and raising questions about the jets' role in the universe.

Astronomers have spotted two giant plasma jets streaming from a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy. At a mind-bending 23 million light-years long, they are the longest plasma jets on record.

An artist's illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed. Nicknamed Porphyrion after a mythological Greek giant, these jets span roughly 7 megaparsecs, or 23 million light- years. That is equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back-to-back. Credit: E. Wernquist / D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration) / M. Oei

In a surprise finding, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory.