Most bright objects in the Universe

Shining so brightly that they outshine the ancient galaxies they inhabit, quasars are distant objects containing a black hole a billion times more massive than our Sun. These powerful objects have fascinated astronomers since their discovery in the middle of the last century.

In the 1930s, Karl Jansky, a physicist at Bell Telephone Laboratories, discovered "stellar noise" having greatest intensity towards the central part of the Milky Way. In the 1950s, astronomers, through the use of radio telescopes, were able to detect new type objects in our universe.

Because this object looked like a point, astronomers called it a "quasi-stellar radio source" or quasar. However, this definition is not entirely correct, since, according to the National Astronomical Observatory Japan, only about 10 percent of quasars emit strong radio waves.

It took years of study to understand that these distant specks of light, which seemed to look like stars, are created by particles accelerating to speeds approaching the speed of light.

“Quasars are among the brightest and most distant celestial objects known. They are critical to understanding evolution early universe”, emphasized astronomer Bram Veneman (Bram Venemans) from the Institute of Astronomy. Max Planck in Germany.

It is assumed that quasars are formed in those regions of the universe in which the total density of matter is much higher than the average.

Most quasars have been found billions of light years away. Because light needs certain time To travel this distance, studying quasars is very much like a time machine: we see an object as it was when the light left it, billions of years ago. Nearly all of the more than 2,000 quasars known to date are in young galaxies. Our Milky Way, like other similar galaxies, has probably already passed this stage.

In December 2017, the most distant quasar was discovered, which was more than 13 billion light-years from Earth. Scientists have observed this object, known as J1342 + 0928, with interest, since it appeared only 690 million years after big bang. Quasars of this type can provide information about how galaxies evolve over time.

Quasars radiate millions, billions, and possibly even trillions of electron volts of energy. This energy exceeds total light from all the stars in the galaxy, so quasars shine 10 to 100,000 times brighter than the Milky Way.

If quasar 3C 273, one of the brightest objects in the sky, were 30 light-years from Earth, it would appear as bright as the Sun. However, in reality, the distance to the quasar 3C 273 is at least 2.5 billion light years.

Quasars belong to a class of objects known as active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This also includes Seyfert galaxies and blazars. All these objects require a supermassive black hole for existence.

Seyfert galaxies are the most weak type AGN generating only about 100 kiloelectronvolts of energy. Blazars like them cousins- quasars, emit significantly large volumes energy.

Many scientists believe that all three types of AGN are essentially the same objects located at different angles to us.

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The nearest quasar 3C 273, which is in the giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo. Credit & Copyright: ESA / Hubble & NASA.

Shining so brightly that they outshine the ancient galaxies they inhabit, quasars are distant objects that are essentially black holes with an accretion disk billions of times more massive than our Sun. These powerful objects have fascinated astronomers since their discovery in the middle of the last century.

In the 1930s, Karl Jansky, a physicist at Bell Telephone Laboratories, discovered "stellar noise" that was most intense towards the central part of the Milky Way. In the 1950s, astronomers discovered a new type of object in our universe through the use of radio telescopes.

Because this object looked like a point, astronomers called it a "quasi-stellar radio source" or quasar. However, this definition is not entirely correct, since, according to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, only about 10 percent of quasars emit strong radio waves.

It took years of study to understand that these distant specks of light, which seemed to look like stars, are created by particles accelerating to speeds approaching the speed of light.

“Quasars are among the brightest and most distant celestial objects known. They are critical to understanding the evolution of the early universe,” said astronomer Bram Veneman of the Institute of Astronomy. Max Planck in Germany.

It is assumed that quasars are formed in those regions of the universe in which the total density of matter is much higher than the average.

Most quasars have been found billions of light years away. Because light takes a certain amount of time to travel this distance, studying quasars is very much like a time machine: we see an object as it was when the light left it, billions of years ago. Nearly all of the more than 2,000 quasars known to date are in young galaxies. Our Milky Way, like other similar galaxies, has probably already passed this stage.

In December 2017, the most distant quasar was discovered, which was more than 13 billion light-years from Earth. Scientists have been watching this object, known as J1342+0928, with interest since it appeared only 690 million years after the Big Bang. Quasars of this type can provide information about how galaxies evolve over time.

The bright quasar PSO J352.4034-15.3373 is located at a distance of 13 billion light years. Credit & Copyright: Robin Dienel / Carnegie Institution for Science.

Quasars radiate millions, billions, and possibly even trillions of electron volts of energy. This energy exceeds the total amount of light from all the stars in the galaxy, so quasars shine 10-100 thousand times brighter than, for example, the Milky Way.

If quasar 3C 273, one of the brightest objects in the sky, were 30 light-years from Earth, it would appear as bright as the Sun. However, quasar 3C 273 is actually at least 2.5 billion light-years away.

Quasars belong to a class of objects known as active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This also includes Seyfert galaxies and blazars. All of these objects require a supermassive black hole to exist.

Seyfert galaxies are the weakest type of AGN, generating only about 100 kiloelectronvolts of energy. Blazars, like their cousins, quasars, emit much larger amounts of energy.

Many scientists believe that all three types of AGN are essentially the same objects, but located at different angles to us.

"Our world is immersed in a vast ocean of energy, we are flying in endless space at an unfathomable speed."
N. Tesla

Quasars were discovered by astronomers quite recently, in the middle of the twentieth century. What they are is still debated. Scientists have several theories, but which one is correct is still unknown.

Beacons of the Universe

At first, quasars were mistaken for stars: from a great distance, these objects look like glowing dots. But when by electromagnetic radiation the distance to these stars was calculated and their brightness determined, scientists were amazed. Because a star located so far from us cannot be seen. And a star can't be that bright. Quasars glow dozens, and sometimes hundreds of times brighter than all the stars in our galaxy combined. At the same time, their size is comparable to the size solar system, which means that it is hundreds of thousands of times smaller than the average galaxy.

A quasar glows brighter than any star

New space objects were called quasars (which means "quasi-stellar radio source") and began to study them. Soon a new amazing property: quasars constantly changed the degree of brightness, and for very short periods of time. Sometimes the changes took place over several days or even hours.

The closest quasar to us by name 3C 273 is located at a distance of 3 billion light years, while it has a magnitude of -13. The most distant quasars ever discovered are 12 billion light-years away, and yet we can see them because they shine like crazy. Each quasar is located in the center of the galaxy, which is why quasars are called active galactic nuclei.

Light from quasars has been coming to us for billions of years, and what we see is the distant past. All quasars are very far from our galaxy; thus, by observing quasars, one can understand what was happening on the outskirts of the universe at the time of its birth. Since the Universe is homogeneous, most likely the same thing happened in our area. Perhaps our galaxy also once had a quasar, which by this time had ended its existence or turned into something else.

Quasars are called the "dinosaurs of the universe" because of their advanced age. They have existed for a very long time, almost as long as our universe. New quasars have not been formed for a long time.

If we could use the energy of a quasar, we would have enough of it forever. The energy that this bright object emits in a second would be enough to provide our planet with electricity for billions of years.

Quasar Appetite

According to one version, quasars are young galaxies that originated quite recently, by stellar standards. At the center of such a galaxy is a black hole that absorbs matter. From it comes a bright glow. Or rather, not from her, but from the surrounding area. After all interstellar gas around a black hole is always in a heated state.

Quasars are not simple black holes, but supermassive, which is why their radiation is so powerful. And the change in brightness is explained as follows: when a new object enters the area of ​​attraction of a black hole, it flares up. When "nourishment" is not supplied, its light is extinguished. It must be said that the quasar has an excellent appetite - it absorbs stars, their systems, clusters and entire galaxies. Over time, the black hole will absorb all the matter within its reach and stop glowing. This is probably what happened to the black hole at the center of our galaxy. She "ate" everything she could reach, and is now at rest.

According to another version, quasars are not black holes themselves, but part of a system consisting of a black hole, a quasar, and a tunnel connecting them. The black hole absorbs objects, and then the absorbed energy is ejected through the quasar.

There is one more interesting theory : quasars are such special points in the Universe where new energy and matter, which then spreads everywhere. That is, quasars are space batteries that feed the Universe.

New quasars are being discovered by astronomers all the time as telescopes become more sophisticated. More than 200,000 quasars have been discovered so far.

The furthest from us astronomical objects- quasars. The most ancient stars. The most distant galaxies. One of the most mysterious and beautiful phenomena in the Universe. Quasars are the most distant and luminous objects in the known Universe.

It is possible that the gas expanding from the collision feeds the giant black hole in the core of Markarian 771. Falling into the black hole, it heats up to very high temperatures and begins to glow brightly. That is why a quasar outshines the light of an entire galaxy. Oddly enough, but black holes, which, by definition, should not emit light, can be the brightest objects in the universe. Galaxy with quasar QSO 1229+204 in the center, photographed from Earth and from space.

The original definition was formed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the first quasars were discovered and their study had just begun. One of the closest and most bright quasar 3C 273 has a magnitude of about 13m and a redshift of z = 0.158 (corresponding to a distance of about 3 billion light years).

In the early 1960s, scientists identified quasars as radio stars because they could be detected using a strong source of radio waves. In fact, the term quasar comes from the words "quasi-stellar radio source". As soon as the power of the radio and optical telescopes became much higher, it was discovered that these are not real stars, but a view of unknown to science star objects.

The brightest quasar is known as 3C 273 in the Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources. The quasar itself is an object around the 13th magnitude, although, like many other quasars, its brightness varies periodically. It is assumed that the radio waves do not come from the quasar itself, but from the rays surrounding it. They also found that these objects are located very far, outside our Galaxy.

Their energy can be equal to the energy of three million suns. There is a version that some quasars emit energy 10-100 times more than all the stars in our galaxy.

And have the biggest infrared radiation. Another version of the origin of quasars suggests that these are very young galaxies. And some scientists generally consider quasars to be certain points in space where new matter in the Universe. It takes a long time to understand the essence of these strange objects. The first discovered quasar was called 3c273 and was located towards the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Matthew Sandage in 1960. It is apparently connected with other 16 stars of the constellation.

The true nature of the object, proving that it is not ordinary star, but something else, was revealed when scientists discovered the release of energy to them in a relatively small area. If an object detected in space has such an offset and highlights great amount energy, it becomes a prime candidate to bear the name quasar.

Thanks to rapid development technology, astronomers are making more and more interesting and incredible discoveries in the universe. For example, the title of "most large object in the Universe” passes from one find to another almost every year. Some open objects are so huge that they baffle even the best scientists of our planet with their existence.

With its length of 1.8 billion light years, this spot baffles scientists, because they could not even imagine that such an object could really exist. This region of space contains about 30 percent fewer clusters of galaxies than their surroundings. One proposed theory, for example, suggests that cold spots are the fingerprints of black holes. parallel universes, caused quantum entanglement between universes.

Universe record holders

This 200 million light-year bubble is giant cluster gas, dust and galaxies. With some caveats, this object looks like a giant green jellyfish. Each of the three "tentacles" of this bubble contains galaxies that are four times denser among themselves than is usual in the Universe.

These objects are believed to have formed about 2 billion years after the Big Bang and are true relics. ancient universe. According to theories, over time, more and more new galaxies will form from the accumulated gas here. Astronomers theorize that this is due to Great attractor(Great Attractor), an object with such a force of gravity, which is already enough to attract entire galaxies to itself.

However, as soon as scientists decided to look deeper into space, they soon discovered that the "great cosmic magnet" is a much larger object than previously thought. It could be much larger than thought, spanning 750 million light-years. Problem in definition exact dimensions imprisoned in her disposition.

Great Wall Sloan is a giant galactic filament made up of several superclusters spread out across the universe like the tentacles of a giant octopus. The presence of a "wall" and any other more large objects creates new questions about the mysteries of the universe. Their existence goes against the cosmological principle, which theoretically limits how big objects in the universe can be.

Quasars are high-energy astronomical objects located at the center of galaxies. This results in huge radiation, which is 1000 times more powerful than all the stars inside the galaxy. Stretching over 5 billion light years, the Giant GRB Ring is the second largest large object in the Universe. This object, dubbed the Great Wall of Hercules - the Northern Corona, spans 10 billion light-years, making it twice the size of the Giant Galactic Gamma Ring.

With its length of 1.4 billion light years, the "wall" was once considered the most big object in the Universe. For example, about the Shapley supercluster. In the very first sentences, it says that “our galaxy, the Milky Way … is being pulled through the Universe towards the constellation Centaurus.” it is a masterpiece. In 2006, the title of the largest object in the universe was given to the discovered mysterious cosmic “bubble” (or blob, as scientists usually call them).