Nothing in the universe can be faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, can it? Leaving aside tricks like quantum entanglement, modern physics states this unequivocally. The more surprising is the object observed in the relatively close galaxy M87.
The jet (jet of incandescent plasma) beating from the center of this galaxy has been known to astronomers since 1918 (this was the very first relativistic jet discovered). To be seen from this distance, it must be huge - 5-6 thousand light years.
Visualization from NASA.
Physicists still do not know exactly how these jets work and how much energy they carry. According to modern astronomers, in the center of almost all galaxies are black holes, periodically attracting stars and clouds of gas. When the falling matter begins to rotate around this "funnel", it heats up and the magnetic fields focus part of the matter, throwing it out in the form of a jet with speeds close to the speed of light. The disk around the supermassive black hole in the M87 galaxy rotates at a speed of about 1000 km / s. Jets are formed not only by black holes, but this is exactly the case here.
Jet formation.
The one-way jet emanating from this black hole, slightly tilted in our field of view to the right, does not stand out in any way from the many others observed by astronomers everywhere, but it is relatively close, bright and famous historically. Moreover, the dimensions of this jet visually change within only a few years, which is unusual for such distant objects, and the M87 galaxy is also one of the brightest elliptical galaxies with the most powerful radio emission and therefore is very convenient for studying.
A selection of 1999-2006.
Analysis of images taken by the Hubble telescope since 1995 has shown that there are moving bright bunches inside the jet, moving faster than one would think. Based on the available images, plasma "clumps" move five to seven times faster than the speed of light.
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And there is no explanation for this fact yet. A mystery, however!