Some of the most massive and distant black holes in the universe emit an enormous amount of extraordinarily energetic radiation called gamma rays. This type of radiation occurs, for example, when mass is converted into energy during fission reactions that run nuclear reactors on Earth. But in the case of black holes, gamma radiation is even more energetic than that produced in nuclear reactors and is the product of very different processes; there, the gamma rays are created by collisions between light rays and highly energetic particles born in the vicinity of black holes by means of mechanisms that are still poorly understood.

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