An international astronomy team led by the University of York recently reported that they have discovered the fastest black hole wind ever observed in the ultraviolet band near a distant quasar. The gas outflow speed is as high as about 30% of the speed of light, breaking the observation record of ultraviolet quasar winds and providing unprecedented clues to understand the violent interaction between supermassive black holes and host galaxies.
Research shows that this outflow from quasar J2318 is not only incredibly fast, but also retains visible chemical fingerprints in extremely strong radiation environments, making it difficult for theorists to explain how it can accelerate to relativistic speeds while maintaining observability.
According to reports, J2318 is located in the "Great Square" area of Pegasus. It is a typical quasar. The mass of its central black hole is about 1.7 billion times that of the sun. But what is truly extraordinary is the gas wind it ejects in the direction of the earth, passing through space at about 30% of the speed of light. Team member Patrick Hall, a professor at the University of York, said it's not uncommon to see radiation-driven gas winds in quasars, but observing such high-speed outflows in the ultraviolet band is unprecedented, making J2318 "the fastest member" of the current record of ultraviolet quasar winds.
Lucas Seaton, the first author of the study, pointed out that if we use the Earth's weather analogy, the "wind level" of this gas wind is equivalent to a "category 79 hurricane", and the wind speed increases by about 20% for each "level" increase. This image metaphor highlights its extreme speed and destructiveness. Although higher-velocity outflows have been discovered in the X-ray band, J2318 still maintains a record in ultraviolet observations. Its extremely high brightness and intense radiation make it an ideal laboratory for studying the relationship between black hole activity and galaxy evolution.
This discovery also exposed an important physical problem: it is the huge stream of photons released by the quasar itself that drives the gas to accelerate to such high speeds. However, the same radiation strips away electrons from atoms, causing ions of elements such as carbon and silicon to lose their identifiable spectral characteristics. However, in the spectrum of J2318, the researchers clearly saw the absorption lines of carbon and silicon ions moving at relativistic speeds, which means that the gas still retains some electrons during the strong radiation acceleration process, posing a new challenge to the existing theory of "how to accelerate the gas to 30% of the speed of light without completely ionizing it."
This record-level outflow did not originate from a new observation plan, but was "scoured" from the long-term accumulation of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. Mariana Veltri, a student at the University of York, identified the unusual spectral characteristics of J2318 as an undergraduate. Hall then used software developed by undergraduate Zhu Zezhou to further analyze and confirm that it had a rare high-speed outflow signal, and quickly applied for the use of the 8-meter Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii for tracking observations, which ultimately confirmed its record-breaking wind speed.
Hall explained that just like a rainbow breaks up sunlight into different colors, the Sloan Survey's spectrograph breaks down the light of stars, galaxies and quasars into detailed spectra from which anomalous targets can be identified. He emphasized that large-scale sky survey projects and modern data processing tools are changing the discovery model. In the past, only PhDs or graduate students could make discoveries. Now undergraduates can also discover new extreme celestial objects in massive spectral data, injecting new power into astrophysics research.
The research team pointed out that the significance of quasar winds goes far beyond a single black hole itself. Increasing evidence shows that black hole strong winds can play a key role in the evolution of galaxies by heating galactic gas, inhibiting or triggering star formation, and redistributing matter on huge scales. Co-author Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo, a researcher at the University of Washington Bothell, said that these types of extreme outflows may be the missing link between "black hole feedback" and the overall evolution of galaxies in long-standing theoretical models. Although related processes have been included in galaxy formation simulations for many years, a lot of work is still needed to accurately constrain and correct these models through observations.
Currently, the team is trying to continue to search for similar or even faster ultraviolet fluxes in the universe at different distances and at different times, but systems like J2318 appear to be extremely rare, and even in decades of observational data, there are few objects that can match its speed. Still, each discovery of such extreme quasar winds will help scientists get closer to the limits of what supermassive black holes can achieve and clarify how these "cosmic engines" shape the fate of their galaxies on timescales of billions of years.
The research paper is titled "A New Member of the Fast and Ruthless Family: Relativistic and Time-Variable Ultraviolet Outflow in a Highly Luminous Quasar" and was published in the Astrophysical Journal on June 4, 2026. It provides a key observational benchmark for future related theories and numerical simulations. As co-author Liliana Flores said, it is not easy to find outflows faster than J2318 in the ultraviolet band, but the team will continue to search from the nearby universe to the depths of the observable universe, hoping to further expand humankind's understanding of black holes and their huge influence.