Recently, astronomers at an observatory in Chile spotted an absolutely massive blast from a quasar (quasi-stellar radio source), one that could play a key role in helping scientists better understand the way black holes work.
Quasars are the usually extremely bright cores of a galaxy, with each one predicted to house a supermassive black hole at its very center. Quasars have been known to expel materials out of a galaxy’s core at unimaginable speeds, but scientists say that what was observed is far, far more powerful than any other blast ever observed.
According to reports, the blast was two trillion times more energetic than our own sun — and very, very large.
“We discovered the most energetic quasar outflow ever seen, at least five times more powerful than any that have been observed to date,” study co-author Nahum Arav, of Virginia Tech, said according to National Geographic . “We were hoping to see something like this, but the sheer power of this outflow still took us by surprise,” he added.
Using data from the quasar energy blast, scientists hope to be able to learn why black holes seem to be lighter than expected and why there appears to be a relatively small amount of large galaxies in the observable universe.
“I believe this is the smoking gun for several theoretical ideas that use the mechanical energy output of quasars to solve several important problems in the formation of galaxies and cluster of galaxies,” Arav added.
Below you can find a video illustrating the quasar’s massive energy blast.