Astronomers in India have discovered 53 giant radio quasars with jets up to 7.2 million light-years long.
Two examples of the newly discovered giant radio quasars, each spanning millions of light years.
Photo Credit: Pal, et al (2025)
Astronomers have discovered 53 new quasars that are fueled by supermassive black holes. These sources, which are called giant radio quasars, release the oppositely directed jets of plasma that are accelerated to almost the speed of light. The jets reach as far as 7.2 million light-years, which is approximately 50 times the diameter of the Milky Way. The finding by a team from India using data from the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) curve provides a fresh perspective on black hole madness.
According to the recent study, an Indian team of astronomers led by Dr Sabyasachi Pal of Midnapore City College used data from the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to identify 53 previously unknown quasars with enormous radio jets. Each jet spans up to 7.2 million light-years (about 20–50 Milky Way diameters). Team member Souvik Manik said (via Space.com), “The sizes of these radio jets are not comparable to our solar system or even our galaxy,” highlighting their extreme scale.
Dr. Pal and colleagues consider the discovery to be a major extension of the catalogue of giant quasars known. Their paper in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, dated November 2025, presented this discovery.
Such huge jets, the scientists say, illuminate the birth and mergers of supermassive black holes as well as their interactions with the universe around them. Pal states that such jets play a significant role in the study of the intergalactic medium, where black holes grow and also the last stages of black hole evolution. Further observations will provide a closer look at the jets and their galaxies.
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