esahubble_opo1227c June 27th, 2012
Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble, and K. Schawinski (Yale University, USA)
Quasars are the brilliant beacons of light that are powered by black holes feasting on captured material, and in the process, heating some of the matter to millions of degrees. The brightest quasars reside in galaxies distorted by collisions with other galaxies. These encounters send lots of gas and dust into the gravitational whirlpool of hungry black holes. Now, however, astronomers are uncovering an underlying population of fainter quasars that thrive in normal-looking spiral galaxies. They are triggered by black holes snacking on such tasty treats as a batch of gas or the occasional small satellite galaxy.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/opo1227c/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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