Astronomers have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to take the closest-ever look at the heart of a quasar—a dazzling galactic center powered by a supermassive black hole.
Quasars are among the brightest objects in the universe, glowing intensely as their central black holes consume material from their surroundings.
The new observations, led by Bin Ren from the Côte d’Azur Observatory in France, revealed strange structures around the quasar, including a mysterious L-shaped filament and several blob-like objects of varying sizes.
These features lie within 16,000 light-years of the quasar’s black hole, providing new clues about the environment feeding its immense energy.
Some of the blobs might be small satellite galaxies orbiting the quasar’s black hole. They could be a source of material falling into the black hole, fueling its brilliant glow.
“Thanks to Hubble’s incredible capabilities, we’re seeing details around quasars that we’ve never seen before,” said Ren.
The quasar under study, called 3C 273, is located 2.5 billion light-years away. It was the first quasar ever identified, discovered in 1963 by astronomer Maarten Schmidt.
Its discovery was groundbreaking, revealing that quasars were incredibly far away and unimaginably bright—producing more energy than 10 giant galaxies combined.
The explanation? Material spiraling into a supermassive black hole at the quasar’s center generates enormous energy.
Observing quasars has always been challenging because they are so bright that their surrounding structures are hard to see. Ren compared the challenge to trying to spot an ant crawling around the edge of a car’s headlight while staring directly into the glare.
However, Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) uses a coronagraph to block the quasar’s central light, similar to how the moon blocks the sun during a solar eclipse. This allowed the astronomers to examine the quasar’s surroundings in more detail than ever before.
The Hubble observations also provided a closer look at the quasar’s jet—a 300,000-light-year-long stream of material blasting out into space at nearly the speed of light.
By comparing Hubble images taken 22 years apart, researchers discovered that the jet moves faster as it gets farther from the black hole.
This unique insight helps bridge the gap between smaller-scale radio telescope studies and larger-scale optical observations.
Quasars like 3C 273 are essential for understanding the universe. They were most common about 3 billion years after the Big Bang, a time when galaxies frequently collided and merged, fueling the growth of supermassive black holes.
At least a million quasars are scattered across the sky, acting as “cosmic flashlights” for studying distant galaxies and cosmic structures.
Ren and his team believe this is just the beginning. “Hubble has given us a new understanding of the complex environment around quasars and their interactions with host galaxies,” he said. The James Webb Space Telescope, with its powerful infrared capabilities, could reveal even more about quasars like 3C 273 in the future.
By studying these brilliant cosmic beacons, scientists hope to unlock new secrets about the universe’s history, galaxy formation, and the mysterious power of black holes.
Source: ESA.
