Astronomers just announced the most massive quasar yet known in the early universe. Its monster central black hole has a mass equivalent to 1.5 billion of our suns. The object has been given a Hawaiian name, Poniua’ena. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/poniuaena-monster-quasar-in-early-universe…
Tag: quasars
Astronomers discover ‘monster’ quasar from early universe
Astronomers have discovered the most massive quasar known in the early universe, containing a monster black hole with a mass equivalent to 1.5 billion suns. Formally designated as J1007+2115, the newly discovered quasar is one of only two known from the same cosmological period. Quasars are the most energetic objects in the universe, and since their discovery, astronomers have been keen…
New Exotica Catalog will help guide search for ET
“What if extraterrestrial intelligences are not like us, but are found in the frigid reaches of the outer solar system, the extreme gravity of neutron stars, the brilliant cores of active galaxies, or the hearts of the richest galaxy clusters?” Source: https://earthsky.org/space/the-breakthrough-listen-exotic-target-catalog-seti-extraterrestrial-intelligence…
Quasar jets are particle accelerators thousands of light-years long
An international collaboration bringing together over 200 scientists from 13 countries has shown that the very high-energy gamma-ray emissions from quasars, galaxies with a highly energetic nucleus, are not concentrated in the region close to their central black hole, but in fact, extend over several thousand light-years along jets of plasma. This discovery shakes up current scenarios for the behavior of…
Cosmic quasars embrace 1970s fashion trend
Researchers from Russia, Germany, Finland and the U.S. have studied more than 300 quasars—spinning black holes that produce beams of plasma. The team has found that the shape of these so-called astrophysical jets changes from parabolic to conical at some distance from the black hole, reminiscent of the iconic flared jeans of the ’70s. By effectively measuring these “cosmic pants,” the…
Quasar tsunamis rip across galaxies
Astronomers using the Hubble Telescope found that the region around a quasar’s black hole pushes out material at a few percent the speed of light. These quasar tsunamis wreak havoc on the galaxies in which the quasars live. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/quasar-tsunamis-rip-across-galaxies…
Distant ‘quasar tsunamis’ are ripping their own galaxies apart
The winds and radiation blowing out of quasars — the most energetic objects in the universe — can kill star formation galaxy-wide, new research shows. Source: https://www.livescience.com/quasar-tsunamis-kill-star-formation.html
Astrophysicists wear 3-D glasses to watch quasars
A team of researchers from Russia and Greece reports a way to determine the origins and nature of quasar light by its polarization. The new approach is analogous to the way cinema glasses produce a 3-D image by feeding each eye with the light of a particular polarization, either horizontal or vertical. The authors of the recent study in the Monthly…
Astronomers Find the Biggest Black Hole Ever Measured
“Astronomers have found the biggest black hole ever measured — it’s 40 billion times the sun’s mass, or roughly two-thirds the mass of all stars in the Milky Way,” writes Astronomy.com. Iwastheone shares their report: The gargantuan black hole lurks in a galaxy that’s supermassive itself and probably formed from the collisions of at least eight smaller galaxies. Holm 15A is…
Did this huge black hole swallow a star from the inside out?
A recently discovered black hole in a distant spiral arm of the Milky Way, 70 times as heavy as the sun, might have swallowed a star from the inside out, and scientists are baffled. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/did-huge-black-hole-lb1-swallow-star-from-inside-out…