Milky Way's first microblazar may produce fastest particles in the galaxy

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Astronomers have discovered the first microblazar in the Milky Way, a stellar system with a black hole and a jet pointed at Earth, which is likely the fastest particle accelerator in the galaxy, accelerating particles to ultra-high energies.

An international team of astronomers from ASTRON, JIVE, the University of Amsterdam and other institutions has found the first so-called "microblazar" in the Milky Way. This stellar system is composed of a massive star and a black hole with a jet that is pointed toward Earth. The researchers also identified the region where the jet hits a molecular cloud as a place where particles are accelerated to ultra-high energies, likely up to petaelectronvolts. This would make microblazars one of the most powerful particle accelerators in the galaxy. The research was appears in Astronomy & Astrophysics.