Six Galaxies Captured Undergoing Sudden, Dramatic Transitions
Zwicky Transient Facility observations reveal surprising transformations from sleepy LINER galaxies to blazing quasars within months. Galaxies come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes,…
Quasars
Space Dragons: Accelerated Energy Consumption in Quasars
Quasars are the Universe’s brightest beacons; shining with magnitudes more luminosity than entire galaxies and the stars they contain. In the center of this light,…
Ancient Quasars Help Confirm Quantum Entanglement
New results are among the strongest evidence yet for “spooky action at a distance.” Last year, physicists at MIT, the University of Vienna, and elsewhere…
Plasma-Spewing Quasar Shines Light on Early Galaxy Formation
Carnegie’s Eduardo Bañados led a team that found a quasar with the brightest radio emission ever observed in the early universe, due to it spewing…
Astronomers Raise Doubts About the Relation Between Protoclusters and Quasars
Using Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) mounted on the Subaru Telescope, astronomers have identified nearly 200 “protoclusters,” the progenitors of galaxy clusters, in the early Universe, about…
Quasar Microlensing Reveals Planets in Extragalactic Galaxies
A University of Oklahoma astrophysics team has discovered for the first time a population of planets beyond the Milky Way galaxy. Using microlensing–an astronomical phenomenon…
Astronomers Believe Hostile Black Hole Winds Create New Molecules
The existence of large numbers of molecules in winds powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies has puzzled astronomers since they were…
Astronomers Reveal Evidence for Higher Black Hole Spin in Radio-Loud Quasars
Statistical analysis of supermassive black holes suggests that the spin of the black hole may play a role in the generation of powerful high-speed jets…
Herschel Solves Decades-Old Mystery About Starburst-Driven Superwinds
Astronomers have used ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory to solve a decades-old mystery about the origin of powerful cool gas winds in the hot environs of…
Astronomers Reveal Most Distant Supermassive Black Hole Ever Observed
A team of astronomers, including two from MIT, has detected the most distant supermassive black hole ever observed. The black hole sits in the center…
Characteristics of the Remarkable Jet in Quasar 4C+19.44
Using a combination of multiwavelength observations, astronomers measure the characteristics of the Remarkable Jet in Quasar 4C+19.44. Quasars are galaxies with massive black holes at…
Scientists Use the Light of Double Quasars to Measure the Structure of the Universe
Using the light of double quasars, a team led by researchers has made the first measurements of small-scale fluctuations in the cosmic web just 2…
UVES Instrument Views Fingerprint of the Early Universe
The UVES instrument shows the light from quasar HE0940-1050 after it has traveled through the intergalactic medium. The most massive galaxies in the Universe host…
Astronomers Find Unexpected Giant Glowing Halos around Distant Quasars
A new survey by the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope indicates that halos around quasars are far more common than expected. The properties…
Astronomers Detect Time Delays between Flaring Events in a Quasar
The Quintuple Quasar SDSSJ1029+2623 has been gravitationally imaged by an intervening cluster of galaxies. Astronomers have detected time delays between flaring events in the quasar,…
NuSTAR Reveals the Active Galactic Nucleus of a Quasar
Using data from the NuSTAR X-ray satellite, a team of astronomers has found that the emission from quasar 3C 273 most likely arises from two…
Hubble Reveals That Markarian 231 is Powered by a Double Black Hole
Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers discovered that Markarian 231 is powered by two central black holes furiously whirling about each other….
Hubble Reveals the Mysterious Early Formative Years of Quasars
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers uncover the mysterious early formative years of quasars and unveil chaotic collisions of galaxies that fuel quasars by feeding…