How Does Bent Jets from Black Holes - Sixty Symbols Work?

A black hole can shoot out super-fast jets that twist and turn like a spinning rope, it's like when you twirl a lasso in the air.

Imagine you're playing with a slinky on the floor, and you give it a really hard push. The slinky zooms forward and starts to twist around, that’s what happens with bent jets from black holes!

Black holes are like super strong vacuums in space, they suck in stuff nearby. But sometimes, instead of just disappearing into the black hole, some energy gets shot out in the form of jets, which are streams of particles moving at nearly light speed.

These jets can bend and twist because of something called magnetism, it’s like when you run a magnet through a pile of paper clips and they all stick together. The magnetic fields around the black hole pull on the jets, making them curve like smoke from a fire twisting up into the sky.

Sometimes these bent jets look like giant spirals in space, almost like someone took a pencil and drew a corkscrew in the night sky!