Astronomers find real ‘eye of sauron’ blazar hurling ghost particles across the universe

For 15 years, astronomers have quietly studied a mysterious object billions of light-years away, and now they have revealed its true identity. Using years of data from the Very Long Baseline Array, researchers have produced the clearest image yet of a blazar named PKS 1424+240, a cosmic powerhouse that looks eerily like the fictional Eye of Sauron.

What is a blazer?
A blazar is a type of quasar, the extremely bright centre of an active galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole. These cosmic engines shoot out high-energy jets of particles at nearly the speed of light. In the case of a blazar, one of these jets is aimed almost directly at Earth, making it appear even brighter. Scientists say PKS 1424+240 could be among the brightest known sources of high-energy gamma rays and cosmic neutrinos.

Neutrinos and their cosmic source
Neutrinos, often called “ghost particles”, travel through matter without interacting with it, making them extremely hard to detect. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica first identified PKS 1424+240 due to its unusually strong neutrino emissions. The new image confirms that active galactic nuclei can accelerate not just electrons but also protons, explaining the origin of these high-energy neutrinos.

A rare look into a cosmic jet
Researchers describe the blazar’s magnetic field as almost perfectly toroidal, with the jet pointing towards us. This alignment increases its brightness by over 30 times while creating an illusion of slow movement. Scientists say this view gives them a direct look into the heart of a cosmic jet, offering valuable clues about the behaviour of these extraordinary galactic structures.