Chandra X-ray Image of GB1508+5714
The Chandra image of the quasar GB1508+5714 reveals a jet of high-energy particles that extends more than 100,000 light years from the supermassive black hole powering the quasar. At a distance of 12 billion light years from Earth, this is the most distant jet ever detected. In this image, north is up, and east is to the left.
Scale: 12 arcsec per side
(Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/A.Siemiginowska et al.)

VLA Radio Image of GB1508+5714
This radio image of the quasar GB1508+5714 was taken on July 14, 1995 with NRAO's Very Large Array (VLA) at 1.4 GHz. The data then when into the VLA archive and was reanalyzed by Teddy Cheung at Brandeis University. The detection of the similar feature in the radio data confirmed the existence of the jet associated with the quasar GB1508+5714 and provided clues about the process that created it. In this image, north is up, and east is to the left.
Scale: Image is 12 arcsec per side.
(Credit: NRAO/VLA/Brandeis/T. Cheung)

HST Optical Image of GB1508+5714
This visible-light image of GB1508+5714 was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on July 22, 1995. No source is present in the jet region. This archival HST image helps rule out the possibility that the jet in GB1508+5714 is due to a foreground galaxy or a gravitationally lensed image of the quasar. In this image, north is up, and east is to the left.
Scale: Image is 12 arcsec per side.
(Credit: NASA/STScI/A.Siemiginowska et al. 2003)

Illustration of Quasar Jet
This artist's rendering depicts the activity around the supermassive black hole at the center of a quasar that is being fueled by infalling gas and stars. This accretion process is often observed to be accompanied by powerful high-energy jets, as shown in this illustration.
(Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)

X-ray Production by Compton Scattering of Microwave Background
X-rays are produced when low energy photons of the cosmic microwave background radiation (red) are boosted to X-ray energies (white) by colliding with high energy electrons in a jet of particles speeding away from the vicinity of a black hole. This process is called Compton scattering.
Related Field Guide: X-Rays - Another Form of Light
(Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)

Chandra X-ray Image with Scale Bar
Scale bar = 3 arcsec
Credit: NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska et al.