quasars

A groundbreaking map of 1.3 million quasars reveals the universe’s structure and expansion, utilizing data from the Gaia space telescope and aiding in the study of dark matter and cosmic evolution. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)The new map includes around 1.3 million quasars from across the visible universe and could help scientists better understand the properties of dark matter.Astronomers have charted the largest-ever volume of the universe with a new map of active supermassive black holes living at the…

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has potentially unlocked a crucial piece of the cosmic puzzle, shedding light on one of the universe's most enigmatic phenomena - black holes. Contrary to the spotlight typically reserved for the colossal supermassive black holes, a recent discovery suggests that their smaller counterparts, dubbed "baby quasars," might hold the key to unraveling long standing mysteries.Traditionally, supermassive black holes, with masses billions of times those of the sun, steal the cosmic limelight.…

Researchers have discovered evidence of suppressed star formation in a quasar-host galaxy, caused by the outflow of molecular gas. This finding marks a significant step in understanding galaxy evolution in the early Universe. Credit: SciTechDaily.comTheoretical predictions have been confirmed with the discovery of an outflow of molecular gas from a quasar when the Universe was less than a billion years old.A quasar is a compact region powered by a supermassive black hole located in the center of a massive galaxy. They are…

Our Sun is about 330,000 times the mass of Earth, yet it is dwarfed by the black holes that lurk at the centers of galaxies. A team of astronomers recently found the fastest-growing of this group: a 17-billion solar mass black hole in the distant universe, which is growing at the rate of one solar mass per day.Why Bitcoin won’t reach $1,000,000The black hole is actually a quasar, aka an actively feeding black hole at the center of a galaxy. When quasars accrete matter—which is to say, as their strong gravitational fields…

Astronomers and researchers have been studying the Universe for decades with the help of advanced telescopes and equipment around the world. Now, with the help of the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have located the brightest object in Universe. It is a quasar. Experts believe that this is the most luminous object ever found in deep space. And the brightness does not stem from something ordinary. The quasar is said to be energized by what is reported to be the fastest-growing…

This artist’s impression shows the record-breaking quasar J059-4351, the bright core of a distant galaxy that is powered by a supermassive black hole. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, this quasar has been found to be the most luminous object known in the Universe to date. The supermassive black hole, seen here pulling in surrounding matter, has a mass 17 billion times that of the Sun and is growing in mass by the equivalent of another Sun per day, making it the fastest-growing black hole ever known.…

By The Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University January 14, 2024The James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of two early-universe quasars, shedding light on the relationship between black holes and their host galaxies. This breakthrough suggests that the mass ratio observed in more recent galaxies was already present less than a billion years after the Big Bang.JWST’s recent observations of two quasars from the universe’s infancy reveal crucial insights into the early relationship…

James Webb has managed to do some crazy things. Not only has it captured some amazing images of our universe, but it has also peered 11.5 billion years into the past at the “rainbow knot.” Using the telescope, astronomers have looked even deeper into the past, spotting starlight from some of the most ancient quasars we have ever observed. The two galaxies that they observed were seen as they were when our universe was less than one billion years old. Our universe is now estimated to be around 13.8 billion…

Since their discovery 60 years ago, quasars have often been considered the brightest, most powerful objects in space. Despite decades of studying them, researchers have never understood what caused these bright events. A new study could finally shed light on the mysterious origins of quasars and how they form. The new study is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in it researchers detail how quasars form when galaxies collide. This mystery of what triggers the brilliant and…

The Universe is swarming with galaxies, billions upon billions as far as the eye can see. And among this multitude, some galaxies really stand out in a spectacular way.These are the quasar galaxies. Powered by an active supermassive black hole guzzling material at such a tremendous rate, they blaze with some of the brightest light in the Universe, lighting up the galactic center right across the electromagnetic spectrum. For decades, astronomers have wondered why some galaxies have such extreme activity and others do…