Active galactic nucleus and jets, illustration. This side-on view shows the thick ring of dust (opaque torus, orange) that can obscure the energetic processes that occur near the supermassive black hole of an active galactic nucleus (AGN). AGNs emit a range of non-stellar radiation, including radio, microwave, infrared, optical, ultra-violet, X-ray and gamma ray radiation. The features commonly seen in an AGN are the opaque torus, an accretion disc around the central supermassive black hole, and relativistic jets (blue), which are beams of ionised matter accelerated close to the speed of light.