image source, M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory
The artist modeled a beam of radio waves emitted by the farthest-Earth quasar.
Astronomers discovered the quasar, considered the brightest and most powerful object in the universe, 60 years ago. They didn’t understand how quasars formed, but scientists now believe they were. The mystery behind the origin of this bright object has been solved.
The National Institute of Astronomical Research (NArit) explains that a quasar, or quasar, short for QUAsi-StellAR radio source, is a high-energy object that appears superficially like a star. But it is actually a galaxy with a very bright center and very far from Earth.
Many astronomers think of a quasar as a small region around a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. Much of the energy generated by quasars comes from the high-energy collisions of matter inside the accretion disk that circles the black hole.
Quasars are as bright as over a trillion stars in the universe. and is about the size of the solar system but the universe in which the quasar appears There is only one star Compared to the Milky Way Galaxy, which has at least 100 billion stars.
So far, astronomers have observed 48 galaxies that have quasars within them. To compare with 100 other galaxies without quasars.
they discovered that The puzzle of quasars coming from impact Or the collision of two galaxies until they erupt into a quasar. by evaluating that The galaxy in which the quasar appears They are three times more likely to collide with other galaxies than quasar-free galaxies.
image source, NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
A simulation of a quasar inside two galaxies merging.
When two galaxies collide and merge. make a huge gas mass being pushed into the supermassive black holes at the center of two galaxies, but before the gas is absorbed into the black holes Massive amounts of energy erupted in the form of radioactivity. was born as a quasar
Scientists used the Isaac Newtoi telescope located on the island of La Palma. in the Canary Islands of Spain to observe these galaxies and quasars
and upon deeper examination they discovered that The outer structure of a galaxy in which a quasar appears. has a deformed appearance from normal galaxies
large galaxy At its center is a supermassive black hole, as well as a massive gas mass. But most gas clouds are located far away from regions affected by black holes. But when galaxies collide The gas cloud is pushed towards the black hole. and generates enough radioactivity to generate enormous amounts of energy until it gave rise to a quasar that shone brightly
image source, NASA & ESA
Quasars are very far away from Earth. Until the light from it takes billions of years. before arriving
Scientists also found the emergence of quasars has pushed the remaining gas to leave that galaxy, resulting in the galaxy lacking the raw materials necessary for the formation of constellations Sometimes for billions of years ever.
Solving this quasar origin mystery It was published in the Monthly Report of the Royal Astronomical Society on April 26.
“Quasars are one of the most extreme phenomena in the universe. what we have seen Shedding light on the future of the Milky Way Galaxy when colliding with the Andromeda Galaxy in five billion years.” and professor Faculty of Physics and Astronomy University of Sheffield in the UK specified in the statement
“It was exciting to observe these phenomena. and understand that How did it happen? But fortunately, our world is not at risk of reaching such a catastrophic scene. In a long time from now.”
Studying the bright quasar scattered in the vast universe It allows the virtual scientist to relive events that took place in the distant past.
In 2021, scientists detected the most distant quasar on record, named P172+18. Because before the light from this quasar reaches Earth, it takes up to 13 billion light years, and this quasar It emitted a beam of light at almost the speed of sound.
“It’s a place where scientists around the world try to learn and is one of the study targets of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. It can detect light from the farthest-Earth quasar. and emitted that light nearly 13 billion years ago,” said co-author Dr. Jonny Peach on the paper. and researchers at the University of Hertfordshire said
“Quasars play an important role in understanding the history of the universe. and the future of the Milky Way.”
