Black Hole Jet Makes a Sharp Turn express
The black hole in GRS 1915+105 behaves like a lighthouse with a shaky foundation: its jet, normally aimed in one direction, suddenly veered off by 34 degrees in just a month. Astronomers spotted this during a radio burst in 2025. It turns out that since 2023, the "beam" had been wandering within a 70-degree range, but the abrupt jump in 37 days set a record. The reason is a warped gas disk around the hole. Like a tilted lighthouse support, it wobbles and makes the jet swerve. X-ray observations show that the disk is even irregularly shaped inside, causing the jet to fan out sideways. The jet itself races at nearly light speed, creating the illusion of superluminal motion — an optical trick due to its direction toward us. This discovery, made in our own Galaxy, brings us closer to understanding how black holes eject matter.
Jets from such systems can appear to move faster than light — an optical illusion caused by their direction nearly pointing our way.
In Star Trek, black holes fire straight beams, but in reality their jets perform unexpected pirouettes.