X-shaped radio galaxies might form more simply than expected

When astronomers use radio telescopes to gaze into the night sky, they typically see elliptical-shaped galaxies, with twin jets blasting from either side of their central supermassive black hole. But every once in a while — less than 10% of the time — astronomers might spot something special and rare: An X-shaped radio galaxy, with four jets extending far into space. Read more at In this video: Three-dimensional volume rendering of density illustrates the natural development of X-shaped jet morphology. Gas infall forms an accretion flow (bright red) deep within which we witness the formation of an accretion disk (yellow) that feeds the black hole, that launches a pair of relativistic jets (light blue), which propagate vertically and shock the ambient gas (dark red). The older cavities (dark blue), which were inflated by previous misaligned jet activity, buoyantly rise at an angle to the vertically-propagating jets and form the X-shaped jet morphology. Video Credit: Aretaios Lalakos/Northwestern University Subscribe: Thank you for helping our YouTube channel reach new heights! Hitting subscribe aids us in our mission to bring you the latest and greatest research news in science, medicine and technology.