Space shock: Astronomers spy strongest-ever cosmic storm – ‘It’s crazy powerful’ – Express.co.uk
SPACE experts have witnessed the most powerful winds ever detected, after reexamining odd behaviour near a black hole.
Quasars are created when a supermassive black hole accelerates certain particles it cannot absorb. This occurs so intensely they almost reach the speed of light as they hurtle from the black hole in bizarre jet-like structures.
Quasars also frequently produce almost unimaginable wind speeds spewing through the nearby galaxy, reducing star formation.
However, space scientists have until now witnessed quasar winds at such speeds.
Professor Sarah Gallagher, a Western University astronomer, lead author in the groundbreaking research, said in a statement: “While high-velocity winds have previously been observed in quasars, these have been thin and wispy, carrying only a relatively small amount of mass.
“The outflow from this quasar, in comparison, sweeps along a tremendous amount of mass at incredible speeds.
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Space news: An artist’s depiction of a quasar and its surrounding galaxy as seen with optical light (Image: . (Image: © International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld))
Space news: Quasars can almost unimaginable wind speeds (Image: Getty)
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“This wind is crazy powerful, and we don’t know how the quasar can launch something so substantial.”
The newly-studied quasar, dubbed SDSS J135246.37+423923.5, is produced by a supermassive black hole.
Scientists have estimated this supermassive monster to containing more than eight billion times the mass of the solar system’s Sun.
This is approximately an unbelievable 2,000 times the mass of the black hole sitting at the centre of our galaxy.
Space news: Qusars are created when a supermassive black hole accelerates certain particles (Image: Getty)
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, producing massive maps of the universe, was the first to discover this quasar.
The resulting data and was reexamined by experts at the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii.
The team behind the new research also needed to apply a recently developed technique for analysing this broad absorption line quasar.
Professor Karen Leighly, an astronomer at the University of Oklahoma and co-author on the new research, wrote: “We were shocked — this isn’t a new quasar, but no one knew how amazing it was until the team got the Gemini spectra.
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“These objects were too hard to study before our team developed our methodology and had the data we needed, and now it looks like they might be the most interesting kind of windy quasars to study.”
The calculations based on this analysis imply this extreme entity is responsible for the most powerful quasar winds ever detected.
The phenomenon is all the more remarkable because scientists believe these cosmic are even responsible for sculpting the galaxies surrounding the structure.
Space news: Odd behaviour near a black hole has been reexamined (Image: Express)
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The researchers even anticipate this quasar is not the only one of its kind.
Hyunseop Choi, first author on the new research and a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, said: “We don’t know how many more of these extraordinary objects are in our quasar catalogs that we just don’t know about yet.
“There could be more of these quasars with tremendously powerful outflows hidden away in our surveys.”
