A new array of radio telescopes has captured its first images,
showing a huge jet blasting away from a galaxy with a powerful
black hole at its heart. The images, taken by the e-Merlin
telescope array in the United Kingdom, depict a jet of radio
emissions arcing away from a distant quasar 9 billion light-
years from Earth. Quasars the central regions of galaxies
dominated by energy-spewing supermassive black holes are some of
the brightest objects in the universe. This particular object is
known as the "Double Quasar," because its light gets bent around
a foreground galaxy one closer to Earth by the curvature of
space. This warping of space results in a "gravitational lens"
that produces multiple, magnified images of the same quasar,
scientists said. [ New image of the Double Quasar ] The
foreground galaxy responsible for the lensing effect is also
visible in some of the new images, just above the lower quasar.
The radio light seen in the e-Merlin image suggests that this
galaxy, too, harbors a black hole, alb