First Microblazar Discovered In The Milky Way - It Might Be The Source Of The Fastest Particles In The Galaxy

Astronomers have found, for the first time, a microblazar in our own galaxy. The object is a miniature version of what happens when a supermassive black hole produces an energetic jet and shoots right towards Earth. The object, called IRAS 18293−0941, also has a black hole, but a stellar-mass one. It weighs about 10 times the mass of our Sun, and it has a stellar companion that goes around it every 11 days. The black hole steals material from the companion, which first ends up in an accretion disk and eventually in the black hole. Part of that material is shot out into the galaxy as two jets shooting in in opposite directions. As luck would have it, one points almost right at us. Radio observations have shown that the jet on the other side has cleared 100 light-years of interstellar medium.