They are some of the universe’s most unusual and fascinating objects.

And now a study suggests that black holes might be even stranger than we thought.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory has captured vast plasma jets from a supermassive black hole slamming into a mysterious object.

The researchers who made this bizarre discovery say they have no idea what this galactic speedbump might be or why it seems to act so strangely.

The hidden object lurks within the galaxy Centaurus A, an irregular swirl of gas and dust approximately 12 million light-years from Earth.

What makes Centaurus A so special is the supermassive black hole at its heart which shoots radiation and matter 40,000 light-years across the entire width of the galaxy.

Using the deepest X-ray images ever taken of the galaxy, the researchers found a V-shaped patch of bright emissions caused by the collision of these jets and some unknown object.

NASA says: ‘While the researchers have ideas about what is happening, the identity of the object being blasted is a mystery because it is too distant for its details to be seen, even in images from the current most powerful telescopes.’

Scientists have made a baffling discovery as they spot an unknown object being battered by the plasma jet of a supermassive black hole (pictured) 

As black holes gather matter into an accretion disk, some of this is accelerated and shot out into space in the form of a vast beam of plasma and radiation (artist’s impression)

When a star more than 20 times the size of our sun dies and explodes in a supernova, the remaining matter collapses down into an extremely dense object called a black hole.

These mysterious voids exert such a strong gravitational force that nothing, not even light, can escape their pull.

As matter and light fall into the black hole like water circling a plug hole, they form an enormous swirling ring called an accretion disk.

However, not all of that matter ends up falling beyond the point of no return known as the event horizon.

Instead, some of the matter gets accelerated along the black holes’ powerful magnetic field lines and shot out of the poles and incredible speeds.

While scientists know roughly why these jets form, their near-relativistic speed and intense forces make much of their true nature a mystery.

Located relatively close to Earth, Centaurus A has long been the ideal place to observe these mysterious jets in action.

In previous studies, NASA has spotted a series of ‘jet knots’ within Centaurus A’s massive plumes.

The galaxy Centaurus A (pictured) is 12 million light-years from Earth and is notable for the supermassive black hole at its heart which generated a 40,000-light-year plume of plasma

Scientists have previously spotted ‘jet knots) which show up as bright spots of X-ray radiation in images 

These are massive areas of turbulence which showed up as bright spots in the X-ray spectrum.

But, in this latest study Dr David Bogensberger, an astrophysicist from the University of Michigan, and his co-authors found a knot which didn’t match any of the usual patterns.

Dr Bogensberger and his co-authors write: ‘Near the counterjet axis, we detected a source with an unusual morphology. We label it as C4.’

‘It appears to have two streams of matter trailing away from it at two distinct angles, forming a ‘V’-like shape behind it.’

The arms of the V are at least about 700 light-years long – 140 times the distance from Earth to the nearest neighbouring star.

The V of strong X-ray radiation traily behind C4 are unusual since all other obstacles in the jet’s path only produce elliptical blobs.

NASA suggests that the mysterious object at the heart of this cosmic wake could be a massive star, either on its own or with a companion star.

The researchers believe that particles in the black hole jet could be colliding with the strong solar winds emitted by this star. 

If this were the case, the resulting turbulence would increase the density of the gas in the jet, igniting the X-ray emission seen within the Chandra images.

However, C4’s unique structure raises some problems for this relatively simple explanation.

This study found an object known as C4 which had an unusual V-shaped wake stretching out behind it. This is totally different to the elliptical patterns usually produced by objects caught in a black hole’s jet 

Scientists think that C4’s unique shape might be the product of a massive star. As particles in the jet collide with solar wind from the star, this compresses the jet and ignites the bright X-ray radiation seen in these images

If there were an object in the jet, astronomers would expect to see an X-ray trail running roughly parallel to the jet’s direction like the wake around a boat moving upstream.

The bottom arm of the V does match this picture, but the top arm is harder to explain since it is at a much larger angle to the jet.

That means, whatever this object is, it may have some very unusual properties which astronomers haven’t spotted anywhere else in the universe.  

NASA says: ‘Astronomers are trying to determine why C4 has this different post-contact appearance, but it could be related to the type of object that the jet is striking or how directly the jet is striking it.’

However, for now at least, the identity of this strange object will remain stubbornly mysterious.