The main power source for a jet emanating from galaxy 3C303 (red dot at centre of image) is a current of about 1018 amps (or one 鈥渆xa-amp鈥�)
(Image: Leahy and Perley (1991))
A COSMIC jet 2 billion light years away is carrying the highest electric current ever seen: 1018 amps, equivalent to a trillion bolts of lightning.
of the University of Toronto in Canada and colleagues measured the alignment of radio waves around a galaxy called 3C303, which has a giant jet of matter shooting from its core. They saw a sudden change in the waves鈥� alignment coinciding with the jet. 鈥淭his is an unambiguous signature of a current,鈥� says Kronberg.
The team thinks magnetic fields from a colossal black hole at the galaxy鈥檚 core are generating the current, which is powerful enough to light up the jet and drive it through interstellar gases out to a distance of about 150,000 light years ().
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