Quasars
Most Black Holes Spin Rapidly. This one… Doesn’t
A Chandra X-ray Observatory view of the supermassive black hole at the heart of quasar H1821+643. Courtesy NASA/CXC/Univ. of Cambridge/J.…
Astronomers see a Rare “Double Quasar” in a Pair of Merging Galaxies
What's better than a quasar? That's right, two quasars. Astronomers have spotted for the first time two rare double-quasars, and…
Gaia Finds 12 Examples of Einstein Crosses; Galaxies Being Gravitationally Lensed so we see Them Repeated 4 Times
After examining data from the Gaia Observatory, a team of researchers found 12 more examples of the rare phenomenon known…
A New Technique to Find Cold Gas Streams That Might Make up the Missing (Normal) Matter in the Universe
Where is all the missing matter? That question has plagued astronomers for decades, because the Universe looks emptier than it…
Astronomers are Starting to Understand the Quasar Lifecycle
Supermassive black holes have a complicated lifecycle. Sometimes they're "on", blasting out tremendous amounts of energy, and sometimes they're "off',…
A Galaxy is Making New Stars Faster Than its Black Hole Can Starve Them for Fuel
A monster lurks at the heart of many galaxies – even our own Milky Way. This monster possesses the mass…
New jets seen blasting out of the center of a galaxy
Giant black holes can launch jets that extend for tens of thousand of light-years, blasting clean out of their host…
Some Quasars Actually Contain Two Supermassive Black Holes in the Process of Merging
Astronomers have found a powerful quasar powered by two supermassive black holes.
Quasars can twinkle?
It turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks. With a recent upgrade to a 50-year-old radio telescope,…
Quasars are the Biggest Particle Accelerators in the Universe
We puny humans think we can accelerate particles? Look how proud we are of the Large Hadron Collider. But any…