NASA Image Shows Unusual Radio Structure Called Treble Clef
Scientists have a new idea about where a radio structure spanning more than 2 million light-years may have come from.
NASA has shared a featured image of an unusual radio structure called Treble Clef. The picture is dated October 19, 2026, and it shows radio emission in red and X-rays in blue.
Treble Clef extends over 2 million light-years, which is the distance light travels in 2 million years. Its visible light is hidden by the Milky Way Galaxy, the galaxy that our Solar System belongs to.
The structure was examined in 2004 under the name VLSS J0318.9+5755. Recent observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and eROSITA have now led to a hypothesis about how it formed.
According to NASA, the central cloud of charged particles may have been expelled by a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. A supermassive black hole is a very large black hole, and a galaxy is a huge group of stars, gas, and dust.
The particles may have been reinvigorated, or given new energy, by a shock wave from the collision of two clusters of galaxies. A cluster of galaxies is a large group of galaxies held together by gravity.
The featured composite image combines data from several sources. Credit is given to NASA/CXC/INAF-IRA/A. Botteon et al., UKIDSS-GPS, ASTRONLOFAR, and NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk.
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