Starts With A Bang podcast #111 — Black hole jets | by Ethan Siegel | Starts With A Bang! | Nov, 2024

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This illustration shows how black hole jets can be as large as the scale of the cosmic web itself, with Porphyrion, as illustrated here, setting a new cosmic record with its bipolar jets spanning 23–24 million light-years across. (Credit: Erik Wernquist/Dylan Nelson (IllustrisTNG collaboration)/Martijn Oei; Design: Samuel Hermans)

Black holes are the most massive individual objects, spanning up to a light-day across. So how do they make jets that affect the cosmic web?

In this Universe, there are a few objects that are just larger, and a few events that are just more powerful, than others. As far as size goes, the cosmic web creates some of the largest features ever discovered, with the largest galaxy filaments and the largest regions devoid of galaxies spanning as much as ~2 billion light-years. No robust, verified structure has ever been found that’s larger. Meanwhile, as far as energy and power go, collisions of galaxy clusters are the most energetic events, outstripped only by the Big Bang itself.

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