Despite their name, black holes can in fact light up the sky
with huge bursts of radiation that shine brighter than all the surrounding
stars. Astronomers consider these jets come from a ring of hot material about
the black hole, called a quasar.
3C We’ve always thought there was a bound to how bright
these jets could shine, and consequently how much heat they could create. As
the electrons inside the jet would heat up to over 170 billion degrees
Fahrenheit, the jet would create X-rays and gamma rays, which would interact
with every other and then cool down the emissions.
Now though, latest observations show temperatures in the jet
of quasar 3C 273 in a distant galaxy were able to get to 18 trillion degrees
Fahrenheit.
“This result is extremely challenging to explain with our present
understanding of how relativistic jets of quasars radiate,” astronomer Yuri
Kovalev said in a declaration.
Scientists are motionless
pretty shocked, and the team will need to do more study to figure out just how
the quasar got so hot without cooling down. Luckily, they have some impressive skill
on their side.
Thanks to this highly-detailed view, researchers actually exposed
something else about 3C 272. It had previously unidentified visible distortions
to its substructure, as seen from Earth, caused by peering through the
interstellar medium in our possess Milky Way.
As our telescopic technology continues to improves, who know
what we might discover next
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