Mami Machida

The binary system SS 433 ejects two thin jets of gas at nearly the speed of light. One flies toward us, the other away from us. In April 2024 and March 2025, three instruments watched them simultaneously: the X-ray telescope XRISM, ordinary optical telescopes, and a near-infrared camera.

A fire hose blasts into a snowdrift. The water doesn't just shove the snow aside — at the point of impact, spray, steam, and a roar are born. That's roughly how jets behave: narrow streams of matter shooting out from around a black hole at enormous speeds.