Quasar J0742+2704
Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope to study distant quasars – the brightest objects in the Universe – have captured a rare image that raises new questions about how these space objects form.
Os quasarswhich can be thousands of times brighter than the Milky Way, are caused by supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies that consume enormous amounts of material that, once heated, are expelled in jets.
Scientists believe these jets are triggered by massive galaxy mergers, which funnel gas toward the black hole and disrupt any spiral formation a galaxy may have previously had.
The most recent discovery of quasar J0742+2704which sits at the center of a spiral galaxy, suggests that the jets may, after all, be formed by another unknown process.
“Typically, we see quasars as older galaxies that became very massive, along with their central black holes, after undergoing messy mergers, causing the elliptical shape,” explained astronomer Kristina Nyland.
“It is extremely rare and exciting to find a quasar host galaxy with spiral arms and a black hole that is more than 400 million times the mass of the Sun, as well as young jets that were not detectable 20 years ago,” he added.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), quasar J0742+2704 was discovered with a newborn jet in 2020.
Although it does not appear to have undergone a major disruptive galactic merger, the Hubble image reveals a distortion in one of your arms – a tidal tail, or stream of gas, pulled by the gravity of a nearby galaxy.
According to Nyland, it may be interacting with another galaxy“which is gravitationally pulling on its spiral arm”.
Another clue pointed out by astronomers is the presence of a large galaxy in the lower right part of the quasar, which appears to be a ring galaxy. This shape can form when a small galaxy passes through the center of a larger one.
“The ring galaxy could be a clue as to what is happening in this system. We may be witnessing the consequences of the interaction that triggered this young quasar jet”, concluded Nyland.
Researchers will perform further analysis of the Hubble data and follow up with other telescopes to confirm the distances of the galaxies and how they may be affecting each other.
