A jet from a very distant black hole being illuminated by the leftover glow from the Big Bang, known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB), has been found. Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered this faraway jet serendipitously when looking at another source in Chandra's field of view. Jets in the early Universe such as this one, known as B3 0727+409, give astronomers a way to probe the growth of black holes at a very early epoch in the cosmos. The light from B3 0727+409 was emitted about 2.7 billion years after the Big Bang when the Universe was only about one fifth of its current age. This main panel graphic shows Chandra's X-ray data that have been combined with an optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey. The inset shows more detail of the X-ray emission from the jet detected by Chandra. The length of the jet in 0727+409 is at least 300,000 light years. In B3 0727+409, it appears that the CMB is being boosted to X-ray wavelengths. Release date February 16, 2016.