Markarian 421

July 28, 2023

Markarian 421, a supermassive black hole, is firing powerful jets of high-energy particles directly towards our planet.
The “blazar,” which is the name given to black hole systems that have jets pointed at Earth, is about 400 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
Supermassive black holes that are active at the centres of galaxies (active galactic nuclei) are surrounded by “accretion disks” that feed them.
- But not all the material in the accretion discs ends up being consumed by the black hole.
- Some of it is channelled towards the black hole’s “poles” and blasted out at a speed near that of light.