Supermassive black holes remain full of mysteries, from their formation to their behaviors. One of them might soon be solved, though this won’t be coming from some new space observations. The insights from a particle accelerator on Earth deliver a solution to a long-standing problem. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Supermassive black holes that are actively feeding on gas can create a powerful jet of particles. These particles are moving close to the speed of light, and in the case of the Blazars class , these jets are pointed at Earth. From that specific vantage point, we see the emission of gamma-rays at really high energy, and this powerful light interacts with other light particles to produce a cascade of matter-a

See Full Page