Location: Constellation Cancer
Coordinates: 08 40 02.336 +29 49 02.73
Distance: 850,000,000 ly
Mainstream description
Appears as a tight spiral galaxy with an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in visible light (yellow). Radio observations (purple) reveal two jets of particles that are speeding at millions of miles per hour away from a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. The estimated mass of the black hole is about 100 million times the mass of our Sun. X-ray data (blue) traces the location of hot gas. The bright X-rays in the center of the image mark a pool of million-degree gas around the black hole. The bright spots in X-ray and radio emission near the ends of the jets are caused by extremely high energy electrons following curved paths around magnetic field lines. They show where a jet generated by the black hole has collided with clumps of material in the galaxy.
Alternative description
A powerful rotating magnetic field generated between two or more enormous interactive streams of plasma, or galactic-scale currents, accelerates charged particles to subluminal speeds and in opposite directions. This pair of highly energized jets of plasma emit synchrotron radiation in the form of radio waves and X-rays. The object’s high redshift is the result of photons traveling through a hot, sparse electron plasma.