Dr Alexander Tchekhovskoy from the University of California, Berkeley and Dr Omer Bromberg from Hebrew University came up with a simulation demonstrating the powerful jets generated by supermassive black holes at the centres of the largest galaxies.

The simulation explains why some black holes burst forth as bright beacons visible across the universe, while others fall apart and never pierce the halo of the galaxy.

One tenth of all galaxies with active nuclei, presumed to have supermassive black holes, have jets of gas spurting in opposite directions from the core.

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