NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided unprecedented views of a powerful quasar, revealing new insights into the monster black hole at its center. The telescope’s sharp imaging capabilities have allowed astronomers to study the environment around the quasar in detail, shedding light on the mysterious phenomenon.
According to Bin Ren, lead researcher, “Hubble’s observing power is opening a new gateway into understanding quasars.” The team has discovered several unusual features, including blob-like structures and an L-shaped filamentary structure, all within 16,000 light-years of the black hole.
Quasars are galactic centers that emit enormous amounts of energy as supermassive black holes consume surrounding material. The quasar in question, 3C 273, was identified by Maarten Schmidt in 1963 and is now known to be one of the brightest objects in the sky, outshining entire galaxies.
Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) allowed the team to study the jet of material blazing across space at nearly the speed of light. By comparing archival images, they found that the jet moves faster when it is farther away from the black hole.
The discoveries have significant implications for our understanding of quasars and their host galaxies. With the James Webb Space Telescope, future studies may uncover more clues about these enigmatic objects. The Hubble Space Telescope has been a cornerstone of astronomical research, providing a wealth of insights into the universe’s most mysterious phenomena.
Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-takes-the-closest-ever-look-at-a-quasar