Dueling supermassive black holes reveal a twisting, magnetized jet in a distant quasar

Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope observed two shockwaves in the jet of quasar OJ287, indicating a binary supermassive black hole system. The shocks travel through strong magnetic fields and interact with Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, producing a highly twisted, helical magnetic field and rapid polarization changes. The findings provide direct evidence of complex jet dynamics, including non-ballistic motions, and demonstrate the EHT’s capability to probe jet physics beyond imaging black holes.