Overview

• The RadioAstron VLBI array paired the Spektr-R space radio telescope with 27 ground observatories to form a virtual aperture five times Earth’s diameter, achieving 1.8-parsec-scale resolution.
• New interferometric images reveal a sharply curved, ribbon-like plasma jet twisting from the galaxy’s center for the first time.
• Researchers observed the birth and propagation of a shock front along the jet, linking it to a trillion-electron-volt gamma-ray burst detected in 2017.
• Temperature measurements in the jet’s hotspots exceed ten trillion kelvin, indicating extreme energy release near the supermassive black holes.
• Optical records dating back to the 1880s show 12-year double-peaked flares and a 60-year brightness cycle that align with jet precession driven by the binary black hole’s orbit.