The largest-ever black hole jets ever seen hint that these cosmic monsters may play an even more significant role in shaping galaxies than previously thought.

An artist's illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed. Nicknamed Porphyrion after a mythological Greek giant, these jets span roughly 7 megaparsecs, or 23 million light- years. That is equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back-to-back. Credit: E. Wernquist / D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration) / M. Oei

Astronomers have used the wide-field view of the Dark Energy Camera to confirm that supermassive-black-hole-powered quasars in the early universe were packed into dense neighborhoods. However, it seems these cosmic beasts weren't exactly the best neighbors.

One key characteristic of a supermassive black hole is the duo of the extragalactic jets of material that form around its axis of rotation. A new study reveals that one such pair of jets, belonging to a black hole some 7.