Astronomers discover the largest celestial object of its kind in the distant universe

Astronomers have spotted something truly incredible—a massive radio jet stretching twice the width of the Milky Way. What makes this discovery even more exciting is that it comes from a time when the universe was just 1.2 billion years old—less than 10% of its current age.
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on February 6, this find gives scientists a rare glimpse into how some of the first cosmic jets formed and how they may have shaped galaxies over time.

According to Anniek Gloudemans, a researcher at NOIRLab, this is the largest radio jet ever found from the early universe. These types of jets have been difficult to detect because they’re often hidden by leftover radiation from the Big Bang. But thanks to two powerful radio telescopes, including the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in Europe, scientists finally managed to spot this one.
The jet, which extends over 200,000 light-years, is coming from a quasar—a super-bright object powered by a supermassive black hole. To confirm their discovery, astronomers also used telescopes in Hawaii and Texas to study the jet in near-infrared and visible light.


At the center of it all is a quasar named J1601+3102, fueled by a supermassive black hole weighing 450 million times the mass of our sun. While that sounds enormous, it’s actually smaller than most quasars, which often reach billions of times the sun’s mass.
Black holes like this one have incredibly strong gravity, pulling in surrounding gas and dust. In some cases, they release powerful jets of energy, like the one seen here. Interestingly, this particular jet is asymmetrical—one side is longer and brighter than the other. This suggests that something in its environment is affecting its shape, but scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what.

One of the big questions in astronomy has been whether early black holes could create powerful jets like this one. Since black holes in the young universe were smaller and different from today’s, some scientists weren’t sure if they could generate these massive outflows of energy.
“This discovery proves that even early quasars could produce long, powerful jets,” Gloudemans said. “It also shows that these jets were already shaping the universe, spreading magnetism, heat, and cosmic rays far beyond their home galaxies.”
Astronomers believe there may be many more of these enormous radio jets waiting to be discovered. But detecting them is tricky since leftover radiation from the Big Bang often drowns out their signals. The team plans to continue studying J1601+3102 to better understand what conditions create these jets.
With advances in telescope technology, scientists hope to find even more of these hidden giants, helping them piece together the story of how black holes and galaxies evolved over billions of years.