Gigantic wobbling black-hole jet rewrites galaxy science

Astronomers using the Keck Observatory, JWST and the VLA have detected the largest, most extended precessing jet from a supermassive black hole in the disk merger galaxy VV340a, with a jet spanning up to 20,000 light-years and displaying a wobbling, helical structure. The outflow strips gas and suppresses star formation by about 20 solar masses per year, challenging existing ideas about how black holes and their host galaxies co-evolve and suggesting a possible second black hole at VV340a’s center. The findings, published in Science, rely on multi-wavelength data from Keck, JWST, and VLA and signal a new window into galaxy evolution.