Illustration courtesy NASA/CXC/M. Weiss An artist's rendering,
made using data collected by the orbiting Chandra X-ray
Observatory, shows a quasar galaxy with a jet of high-energy
particles extending more than 100,000 light-years from the
supermassive black hole at its center. The object, located 12
billion light-years from Earth, is the most distant such jet
ever detected. These quasar jets are formed when electrons
emitted from a black hole impact with cosmic background
radiation left by the big bang, giving astronomers clues about
the conditions in the early universe.