LONDON: A group of astronomers led by Joseph Hennawi of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have made a remarkable discovery. The researchers have found a quadruple quasar in the early universe. Quasars, which represent actively feeding black holes, are normally separated by hundreds of millions of light years. Not only are these objects close together but, based on models of the early universe, they probably shouldn’t exist.
A quasar is the active state of a black hole. When material gets close to a black hole it forms an accretion disk. As it spins in the massive gravity of the black hole it heats up to millions of degrees. This creates tremendous amounts of radiation and the magnetic field of the black hole blasts that radiation outward for millions of light years, making the quasars incredibly bright and visible for far greater distances.
When a black hole is not feeding, the quasar dies down and goes dark. Typically, a quasar lasts approximately 10 million years, a fraction of the lifetime of a galaxy so astronomers consider themselves lucky when they find a quasar in the act. In this case, the researchers estimate that the odds of finding a quadruple quasar are about one in 10 million.
The four quasars the group discovered are surrounded by an immense nebula of dense, cool hydrogen gas. Hannawi and his team dubbed this the “Jackpot nebula” because of the rare quasar activity. Because of the light from the active black holes the entire nebula is very bright. The nebula and its quasars are located in a particularly dense area.
