In the vast, dark expanse of the early Universe, a cosmic behemoth has been revealed. Using a network of powerful telescopes, astronomers have identified the largest radio jet ever observed from such an early epoch. This discovery, made possible by the Gemini North telescope and other instruments, offers a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the turbulent adolescence of the Universe and the forces that shaped its galaxies.

This thing is just huge. The jet stretches an astonishing 200,000 light-years — twice the width of our Milky Way — emanates from a quasar named J1601+3102. This quasar formed when the Universe was only 1.2 billion years old, a mere 9% of its current age. Scientists used to assume the conditions necessary to produce such colossal jets appeared much later in the history of the universe. As such, the findings provide new clues about the evolution of galaxies.

A Cosmic Lighthouse in the Dark

Quasars are the luminous cores of galaxies, powered by supermassive black holes devouring gas and dust. As material spirals into these black holes, it heats up, releasing immense energy and often launching jets of charged particles at nearly the speed of light. These jets, detectable by radio telescopes, act as cosmic lighthouses, illuminating the distant reaches of the Universe.

While radio jets are relatively common in the nearby Universe, they have been elusive in the early Universe. This is partly due to the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the faint afterglow of the Big Bang. The CMB creates a persistent fog of microwave radiation that can drown out the faint radio signals from distant objects.

“It’s only because this object is so extreme that we can observe it from Earth, even though it’s really far away,” says Anniek Gloudemans, a postdoctoral research fellow at NOIRLab and lead author of the study. “This object shows what we can discover by combining the power of multiple telescopes that operate at different wavelengths.”

The discovery began with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a network of radio telescopes across Europe. LOFAR identified the quasar’s radio signature, which was then studied in greater detail using the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS) and the Hobby Eberly Telescope. Together, these instruments painted a complete picture of the quasar and its jets.

A Surprising Discovery

What makes J1601+3102 particularly intriguing is its relatively ‘modest’ black hole mass. Its mass measures 450 million times the mass of the Sun. Absolutely huge, yes, but still much smaller than many other quasars known to have billions of solar masses. “This seems to indicate that you don’t necessarily need an exceptionally massive black hole or accretion rate to generate such powerful jets in the early Universe,” says Gloudemans.

The jets themselves are asymmetrical, with one side brighter and longer than the other. This asymmetry suggests that the jets are interacting with an extreme environment, possibly dense clouds of gas or other interstellar material. Such interactions could reveal how jets influence their surroundings, shaping the growth of galaxies over billions of years.

“When we started looking at this object, we were expecting the southern jet to just be an unrelated nearby source, and for most of it to be small,” says Frits Sweijen, a co-author of the study and postdoctoral research associate at Durham University. “That made it quite surprising when the LOFAR image revealed large, detailed radio structures.”

The discovery of J1601+3102 raises as many questions as it answers. Why are such large radio jets so rare in the early Universe? What conditions are necessary to produce them? And how did they influence the evolution of the first galaxies?

By studying quasars like J1601+3102, astronomers hope to piece together the story of how the Universe transformed from a dark, featureless void into the vibrant tapestry of galaxies we see today.

The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.