How are astrophysical jets formed?
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If you have the exact answer to that, you’ll answer some outstanding physics questions. It’s still a subject of considerable study and some of the most extreme physics conditions we’ve ever observed. These are the hottest and most violent spots in the known universe.
For the jets out of a supermassive black hole, they appear to be a product of the chaotic magnetic fields that form in the accretion disk.
These objects build up a compact disk of *incredibly* hot material around them as infalling material backs up into a cosmic traffic jam. It takes a while to eat a hundred suns.
Near the event horizon this disk is moving at extreme speeds, and so you have electrically charged hot plasma circulation many orders of magnitude higher than any star. The rotating electromagnetic field from this churning magnetic slush is intensely powerful, and it accelerates charged particles to relativistic speed before ejecting them along the polar axis.
It’s not a a pleasant place to be – these are some of the most powerful objects in the universe, obliterating more matter in an hour than the sun will in a thousand years to drive the jets.
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