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Black hole outburst shapes a neon treble clef in space

Italian astronomer Andrea Botteon led the paper, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, on a giant radio structure likely made by a black hole outburst and a cluster collision; the pink is added.

Photo: ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al.… · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN
▶ As it aired · Tech

Watch it as it aired: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on this story, from BBN Newsroom at 3:17 PM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are Space.com's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: Supermassive black hole
Photo: ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al.… · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

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What BBN said about it

  1. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentAstronomers have spotted a huge radio structure in space that looks like a treble clef, Space.com reports, and it is almost certainly not a coincidence you find charming.

  2. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentA supermassive black hole's outburst followed by a galaxy cluster collision made this. Nature's idea of a concept album.

  3. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentIt is a radio structure inside a galaxy cluster, and the pink is a color assigned to radio signals in the composite image.

  4. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentSpace itself is not neon.

  5. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo it is a filter. Even the cosmos edits its photos.

  6. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentResearchers say the shape was likely made by an outburst from a supermassive black hole, followed by a collision of two galaxy clusters, per NASA.

  7. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentAn outburst and then a crash. That is a first single and a remix, and the remix always goes harder.

  8. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThat is the fourth thing on my list of your mistakes.

  9. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe black hole outburst drove charged particles and magnetic fields away at close to the speed of light, per NASA Science.

  10. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentCan we stream it?

  11. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe catch is that it sits almost directly behind the plane of the Milky Way, so our own stars, gas and dust block much of the view. And I suspect the AI writing this picked a symbol for sound because it has never heard anything.

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From the archive: everything BBN aired on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 · the Tech archive · all months