Scientists discover black hole shooting X-ray jet 60,000 hotter than sun

Education, National, World

Where is it located?

Located around 9.6 billion light-years away from Earth, it is seen in the sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Hydra.

This quasar is around 100,000 billion times brighter than the sun.

Quasars are the black holes with huge, energetic jets of electromagnetic radiation beaming out of the two sides. They feed on gases at the center of galaxies.

Studying a quasar offers the astronomers a detailed insight into these powerful cosmic events and the effect they have on the surroundings.

How powerful are quasars?

Quasars emit energies of millions, billions, or even trillions of electron volts. This energy exceeds the total of the light of all the stars within a galaxy. The brightest objects in the universe, they shine anywhere from 10 to 100,000 times brighter than the Milky Way.

“Quasars are capable of emitting hundreds or even thousands of times the entire energy output of our galaxy, making them some of the most luminous and energetic objects in the entire universe,” according to NASA.

What do quasars tell about early universe?

According to Space.com, quasars are found in the early universe because galaxies formed after the Big Bang were richer in gas and dust in their initial phase.

This meant they possessed enough fuel to allow their central black holes to power bright emissions across almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including low-energy radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet wavelengths, and high-energy X-ray wavelengths, the report said.

What next?

Researchers involved in the aforementioned study said that they were surprised that no prior X-ray observatory ever observed this source [of energy] despite its extreme power.

It was revealed that a new monitoring campaign of this source will start in June this year, which may reveal more surprises from this unique source.

 

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