“Cosmic Collisions: The Key to Understanding Quasars”

Quasars are always at the center of a galaxy and are supermassive black holes that voraciously devour a surrounding disk of gas. The friction between the gas particles that are on their way down into the black hole causes the temperature to rise to several million degrees.

The gas particles become so hot that a large part of their mass is converted into radiation, which ultimately creates an explosion of light that is often stronger than the light from all the stars in the host galaxy combined.

Cosmic collisions are gasoline

In the new study, the researchers used the Isaac Newton Telescope to compare images of 48 quasars within 3.5 light-years and their host galaxies with images of more than 100 galaxies without quasar activity.

There, the astronomers discovered, among other things, what they call “distorted structures” in the outer regions of the active galaxies.

The conclusion was that galaxies with quasars are three times more likely to collide with other galaxies, and that the very collision between the galaxies emits gas in the direction of the black hole and thus is part of the fuel behind the extreme light show.

Astronomers knew beforehand that quasars are created by gas particles that give off a final “roar” of light before disappearing into the black hole.

The new study reveals that cosmic collisions between the galaxies are thus also decisive for the gas being sent in the direction of the hungry, black giants at all.

According to the researchers themselves, the discovery is an important step in understanding the powerful objects that, due to their enormous brightness, function as a kind of lighthouse in the history of the universe’s infancy.

“Quasars play a key role in our understanding of the history of the universe and potentially also the future of the Milky Way,” explains Johnny Pierce, who has participated in the study, among others. in a press release.