A black hole has blasted out a surprisingly powerful jet in the distant universe, according to a study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This jet exists early enough in the cosmos that it is being illuminated by the leftover glow from the big bang itself. The graphic includes an artist's illustration showing material in a disk that is falling towards a supermassive black hole. A jet is blasting away from the black hole towards the upper right, as Chandra detected in the study. The black hole is located 11.6 billion light-years from Earth when the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the leftover glow from the big bang, was much denser than it is now. As the electrons in the jets fly away from the black hole, they move through the sea of CMB radiation and collide with microwave photons. These collisions boost the energy of the photons up into the X-ray band, allowing them to be detected by Chandra even at this great distance, and which is shown in the X-ray images (including a labeled version).

This tactile plate is a physical relief map based on the intensity of Chandra X-ray data, featuring a black hole, located 11.6 billion light-years from Earth. Near this black hole, the leftover glow from the big bang, known as the cosmic microwave background or CMB, is much denser than it is now.

As electrons in jets blast away from the black hole, they move through the sea of CMB radiation. The electrons boost the energies of the CMB light into the X-ray band, allowing the jets to be detected by Chandra, even at this great distance.

The raised object on the plate depicts this interaction. Here, a circular plateau is ringed with a band of energy. The jet is the less distinct raised line shooting off that ring, aimed toward our upper right, with a blob of energy at its tip.