A study of 29 bright quasars has turned up something unexpected . Four of these quasars are located inside moth-eaten galaxies that are still rapidly forming stars , but the quasars are so powerful , they may be punching holes in the galaxy , countenance us to see them . The discovery could facilitate explain giant wandflower where little stellar formation has occur for billions of years .
Peering back towards the daybreak of clip , astronomers see elephantine galax that are so officious make new stars , they are call dusty starburst galaxies , with the dust a byproduct of star formation and explosion . Yet when we look closer to home , many every bit large galaxies have become cauterize out , scantily able to bring forth new stars . This creates a puzzle as to the reason for the transformation .
Astronomers have discover some distant starburst galaxies that , consider their enormous distances , are promising at wavelength slightly shorter than a millimeter . Surprisingly , many of these galaxy have been discover to lie close toquasars – supermassive bootleg mess accrete material so rapidly they let loose immense sum of vigor . Indeed , about a third of quasars at distance greater than 12 billion light - years come out to be in close propinquity to these “ submillimeter - vivid galax ” ( SMGs ) .
To investigate this relationship , the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array try 29 quasars . In 16 cases , the quasar and SMG are tight but not co - located , possibly engaged in a gravitational terpsichore . The authors of the paper in theAstrophysical Journalbelieve the quasi-stellar radio source ’s light will be useful to probe the circumgalactic medium around the SMGs .
Four of the cases are even more interesting , with the quasars apparently located inside the dust-covered starburst galaxy . This was unexpected since such duncish detritus ought to obscure the quasars . " So , the fact that we attend any such quasi-stellar radio source implies that there must be more quasars hidden in dusty starbursts , " saidDr Hai Fuof the University of Iowa in astatement . " To push this to the uttermost , maybe every dusty starburst galaxy horde a quasar and we just can not see the quasar . "
So why are these quasar seeable ? Fu and his co - authors propose that the quasi-stellar radio source are emit so much energy that they pushed out enough throttle and dust to change over the galaxies into doughnut shape . We can see these special quasars because the galaxies find to be aligned with their holes face up us . With so much raw material expelled from the galaxy , star formation stops , eventually leading to the galactic wastelands we see today .
The study also found two quasars that are close to , but not inside , galaxies with which they may be unify . These two quasar could demonstrate extremely interesting targets for future study , potentially giving us unprecedented selective information about galactic phylogenesis and the material that surrounds large galaxies .
