Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL that powerful jets of high-energy particles created by supermassive black holes must be pointed at Earth to be called a Blazar (www.nasa.gov)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

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[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Well, would we even see them if they weren't? (Serious question).

[–] underscore_@sopuli.xyz 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If the angle of the jet is more then a little off axis the jet may still visible if it is sufficiently powerful and it passes through a scattering medium (interstellar dust?) the wiki page for blazars shows just such an example in the M87 galaxy

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 0 points 5 months ago

That makes sense. Thanks for the link.

[–] Fermion@feddit.nl 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm not an astronomy expert, but I believe that the effect of the jets can be seen distorting dust clouds surrounding such objects.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago

Ah, that makes sense