Way and its neighbor Andromeda. These sizes are typical for giant, double-lobed radio galaxies.
    The big question is what, if anything, connects the lobes to the nucleus? The answer is probably a cosmic jet—a thin beam of incredibly hot, fast-moving gas. In this image a radio jet extends about 20,000 light years from one side of the nucleus. It seems to consist of yellow, or relatively hot, blobs. Astronomers call the blobs “knots.” The brightest radio knots match those observed in x-ray.