This year 2023 is done 60 years discoveries quasars, an astronomical object characterized by very intense brightness. So much so that it can be compared to a trillion stars packed into the volume of the solar system. Since then, what science knows about them has come a long way. But there was something that resisted the astronomers: how do they shine? The spark that generated this intense glow was a mystery, but it ceased to be a mystery after the publication of a study conducted by scientists from University of Sheffield.
They showed that quasars ignite collision of two galaxies. In fact, this may be the future of our galaxy, although this is still many years away.
At the moment, it seems that they have answered this question, which has not been answered for so many decades, but their work is not finished. Now, thanks to such powerful telescopes as James Webb, you can get even more interesting data about quasars and thus get to know them in more detail. It is capable of detecting even some of the most distant quasars, so it will surely provide a lot of information to work with.
Spark that ignites quasars discovered
This research work was carried out through the analysis of deep images Isaac Newton telescope on La Palma. The astronomers who have done this have compared 48 galaxies that have quasars with 100 more who don’t have them. Thus, they noticed that the former have a much higher probability of colliding with each other. And that gave them the key to origin of quasars.
It is known that most galaxies have supermassive black holes at its center. Also have large amount of gas, far enough away from these black holes not to be swallowed. However, if two galaxies collide, the gas can escape into the black hole and, once the event horizon is passed, make a one-way flight into it. If this happens, just before the gas is used up, they will release extraordinary amount of energy in the form of radiation. And that would be the intense glow that is seen when observing quasars.
The future of our galaxy
This discovery indicates that the ignition of a quasar could have very serious consequences for the galaxy. And this could be our future Milky Waysince it is estimated that within five billion years it could collide with the galaxy Andromeda.
If that happens, it might not just form quasars. In addition, most of the gas in galaxies would be absorbed by black holes, so there would be no raw material left for formation of new stars. This would be very serious for the planets they contain. It may even be terrible for our Earth. However, there is so much time left that, perhaps, by that time people themselves have taken care to put an end to this.
At least, for sure, before we unravel many mysteries like this, that after 60 years finally there is an answer.
Source: Hiper Textual
