Milky Way’s First Microblazar Aims a Jet Toward Earth
Wednesday, September 30, 2026164 words3 minutes1977 reads
The first known Milky Way microblazar, IRAS 18293−0941, is a black hole and a massive star orbiting every 11 days. The black hole pulls gas from the star into a hot, spinning disk. Some gas is then fired into space in narrow jets from its poles.
One jet points very close to Earth’s line of sight. Fast-moving radiation aimed toward us can appear brighter, like a flashlight pointed toward your eyes. This effect helps explain why distant blazars look so bright. The alignment is not a danger to Earth.
Radio images show the jet crossing about 100 light-years of space before hitting a dense cloud of gas and dust. At a bright spot there, the jet may accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light and very high energies. The spot also matches a gamma-ray signal.
Researchers describe the system as a potential particle accelerator. More observations will test how the jet heats the cloud and whether it links to the nearby high-energy source.
