In this Universe, nothing can travel faster than light. Only light itself can reach lightspeed, as far as we know. But some things get awfully close to the speed of light, and when these things are detected, astrophysicists take note.

Researchers found electrons with extremely high energies travelling at close to the speed of light, coming from an unusual source. The source is a microblazar, the first one ever detected. What's a microblazar?

Understanding microblazars starts with understanding supermassive black holes (SMBH), active galactic nuclei, and quasars, which are all facets of the same thing.

When a SMBH in the center of a galaxy is actively feeding and drawing gas and dust toward itself, it's called an active galactic nuclei (AGN). The material gathers in an accretion disk rotating around the SMBH, where it heats up and emits energetic light. The brightest of these AGN are called quasars.

Not all of the gas and dust in the accretion disk finds its way into the SMBH.…