View to the Edge of No-Return
February 23, 2004 | Source: Astrobiology
Imagine making a natural telescope more powerful than any other telescope currently operating. Then imagine using it to view closer to the edge of a black hole where its mouth is like a jet that forms super-hot charged particles and spits them millions of light-years into space.
The length of a telescope needed to do that would have to be gigantic, about a million kilometers wide. But just such a natural lens has been found by a team of Australian and European astronomers; its lens is remarkably, a cloud of gas….