In a new study, a team of astronomers explained the mysterious jets of matter emitted by black holes, according to a press release.

The jets are slim streams of matter being released from a central object, such as a black hole, which travel at extremely high speeds. Their contents have been shrouded in mystery prior to this study, published in the journal Nature.

"Although they have been observed for decades, we're still not sure what they are made of, or what powers them," said study lead author and European Space Organization (ESO) astronomer Dr María Díaz Trigo.

For their study, the researchers examined a black hole a few times the mass of the sun and its X-rays and radio waves. Their observations did not initially find any jets, despite the black hole apparently being active.

"Intriguingly, we found the lines were not where they should be, but rather were shifted significantly," said radio observations leader Dr. James Miller Jones, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

He compared the effect to a shrilling siren as increases in volume as it moves closer to someone and farther away when it passes and the noise dies down. The length of the movement either shortens or lengthens the sound wave.

"It led us to conclude the particles were being accelerated to fast speeds in the jets, one directed towards Earth, and the other one in the opposite direction," study researcher Dr. Simone Migliari from the University of Barcelona said.

Atoms with a positive charge are heavier than the positrons astronomers previously believed made up these jets. This would mean the black hole jets can carry a significant amount of extra energy than previously believed. Dr. Miller Jones said this study is the first piece of solid evidence for jets of a black hole.

"We've known for a long time that jets contain electrons, but haven't got an overall negative charge, so there must be something positively charged in them too," Dr. Miller Jones said. "Until now it wasn't clear whether the positive charge came from positrons, the antimatter 'opposite' of electrons, or positively charged atoms. Since our results found nickel and iron in these jets, we now know ordinary matter must be providing the positive charge."

Related