sixty years ago quasars have been discoveredthe most powerful and brightest star-shaped celestial objects found in the cores of galaxies.

But until today, it has remained a mystery what could have caused such strong activity, and the answers are provided by a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

By observing 48 galaxies containing quasars and comparing them to more than 100 galaxies without quasars, a research team led by the universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire found that this phenomenon is the result of a collision of galaxies.

When two galaxies collide gravitational forces are pushing huge amounts of gas towards supermassive black holes at the center of the remnant of the galactic system as a result of the collision. Just before the gas is swallowed up by the black hole, releases a huge amount of energy in the form of radiation and this leads to the characteristic luminosity of quasars.

The researchers also concluded that galaxies with quasars are about three times more likely to interact with or collide with other galaxies.

“Quasars one of the most extreme events in the universe and what do we see this likely represents the future of our own Galaxy when it collides with the Andromeda galaxy in about five billion years,” says Clive Tantander, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield.

Quasars are important to astrophysicists because of their brightness stands out at great distances and serves as beacons for the first centuries of history. Universe.

“One of the main scientific goals of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was to study the earliest galaxies in the universe, and this telescope is able to detect light from even the most distant quasars, emitted nearly 13 billion years ago,” explains the doctoral researcher. at the University of Hertfordshire, Johnny Pierce.

Source: RES