Supermassive black hole J1601+3102 actively absorbs matter and part of it throws outward at high speed. Such objects scientists call quasars and specifically in this case.
What are quasars?
An international team of astronomers has observed an extremely radio-noisy quasar known as J1601+3102. Consequently, they found that the quasar contains a large extended radio jet. The discovery is reported in a scientific paper published November 25 on the arXiv preprint server.
Quasars, or quasi-stellar objects (QSOs), are active galactic nuclei (AGNs) of very high luminosity powered by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that emit electromagnetic radiation visible in the radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths. They are among the brightest and most distant objects in the known Universe and serve as fundamental tools for numerous studies in astrophysics and cosmology.
J1601+3102 is an extremely radio-wave quasar with a redshift of 4.9, discovered in 2022. It has a radio emission at 69 mJy, a bolometric luminosity of about 26 quattuordecillion erg/s, and a steep spectral index.
Study of the spectrum of unusual quasar
A group of astronomers led by Anniek Joan Gloudemans of Gemini Observatory recently decided to take a closer look at J1601+3102, hoping to shed more light on its properties. To do this, they used the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a large and sensitive radio telescope operating at low radio frequencies. The observations were supported by data from the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS).
“We constructed a LOFAR VLBI [very long baseline interferometry] image at 144 MHz and observed the quasar with Gemini/GNIRS to obtain its (near-)infrared spectrum,” the researchers wrote in the paper.
LOFAR images show that J1601+3102 has an extended radio structure including a northern radio lobe, a southern radio lobe, and a core. The northern lobe is located about 29,000 light-years away from the optical quasar and has a total flux density of 50.6 mJy, while the southern lobe is 185,800 light-years away, with a total flux density of 10.5 mJy.
Huge radio jet
Thus, these results indicate that J1601+3102 has a radio jet of enormous size – at least 215,000 light-years. The astronomers noted that this was only a lower limit, as the physical size of the jet is likely larger due to projection effects caused by the viewing angle. They added that the J1601+3102 jet is the most extended radio jet ever observed at redshifts above 4.0.
The study also found that the mass of the supermassive black hole in J1601+3102 is about 450 million solar masses. This value is generally smaller when compared to the SMBH in known high redshift quasars. Thus, the authors of the paper concluded that the exceptional mass of a black hole is not strictly necessary for the generation of powerful jets in quasars.
Provided by phys.org
