Facts about OJ 287

1. 06

   Observations spanning 1981 to 2020 of OJ 287 revealed that its secondary black hole orbits the primary in approximately 12 years, causing predictable gravitational impacts that trigger the system's distinctive outburst cycle.

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2. 05

   Relativistic beaming in OJ 287's jets amplifies radiation by a factor of approximately 100, allowing astronomers to observe phenomena in this distant quasar that would otherwise be too faint to detect.

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3. 04

   Optical observations of OJ 287 have revealed that its primary black hole possesses a mass approximately 18 billion times that of our Sun, making it one of the most massive known black holes.

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4. 03

   In 1981, astronomers first detected the precessing relativistic jets in OJ 287, which precess with a period of approximately 18.6 years due to relativistic effects.

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5. 02

   Located approximately 3.5 billion light-years away, OJ 287 ranks among the most distant quasars observable from Earth with its supermassive black holes.

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6. 01

   The binary supermassive black hole system OJ 287 exhibits periodic outbursts approximately every 12 years, with the most recent major flare occurring in 2015.

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