Article

Astronomers from UC Irvine have identified the largest-known stream of superheated gas in the universe emanating from the nearby galaxy VV 340a. Detected using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the gas forms two elongated nebulae, each over three kiloparsecs long, resulting from an active supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center.

This discovery exceeds typical gas confinement near black holes by a factor of 30. The team utilized data from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and the Keck II Telescope, revealing a helical pattern from large-scale plasma jets.

The jets' kinetic energy is equivalent to 10 quintillion hydrogen bombs per second, significantly impacting star formation in VV 340a by stripping it of gas. The study suggests further exploration of other galaxies to observe similar phenomena. Funding was provided by NASA and the National Science Foundation.