English 
Spanish 
3 min read
1 comments
The Hubble Telescope has revealed stunning images of a giant black hole, showing L-shaped structures and mysterious phenomena that have puzzled scientists.
O Hubble Space Telescope, even after 35 years of operation, it continues to surprise scientists and unveil Secrets of the cosmos. In a recent discovery, researchers used the telescope to observe the quasar 3C 273, located 2,5 billion light-years away.
The study brought to light new information about the functioning of these bright objects and revealed enigmatic structures in their vicinity.
"We detected bubbles of varying sizes and a strange L-shaped structure about 16 light-years from the black hole at the center of the quasar“, said Bin Ren, an astronomer at the Côte d'Azur Observatory and Côte d'Azur University, in a NASA statement.
- After Mark Zuckerberg promises technology that can replace cell phones, the company presents a device that not even Google, Apple or Google have yet achieved
- US shocks world by announcing ban on sales of cars with Chinese or Russian technology
- China takes drastic decision and restricts global export of strategic products used in civil and military spheres
- Elon Musk's Starship Explodes Over the Caribbean, Creating a Spectacle of Burning Debris in the Sky
These discoveries reinforce the mysterious nature that still surrounds quasars and their environments.
What are quasars?
Quasars, or “quasi-stellar radio sources“, are extremely bright objects that emit radio waves and are powered by supermassive black holes. Although they were discovered in the 1950s, much about them is still unknown, especially about the regions around them.
Due to the intense luminosity, exploring these environments is a challenge, but Hubble proved to be up to the task.
The key to this observation was the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) tool, which was able to block the intense light from the quasar, in a similar way to how the Moon obscures the Sun during an eclipse.
This blocking allowed scientists to focus on the structures around the quasar 3C 273, the first quasar officially identified, in 1963.
Thousands of times brighter than the average galaxy, it is powered by a massive black hole that consumes the remains of smaller galaxies around it.
Intriguing discoveries
The images captured by Hubble show a jet of material measuring an impressive 300 light-years across being expelled by the quasar.
Scientists compared this data with images taken by the telescope 22 years ago and noticed that the jet appears to move faster the farther it is from the central black hole.
This observation suggests that the black hole plays an active role in boosting the quasar's luminosity as it devours the remnants of neighboring galaxies.
The mysterious L-shaped structures, as well as the detected bubbles, could be part of these galactic remnants, but this is still just a hypothesis. “The Hubble has allowed us to bridge the gap between small-scale observations made by radio interferometry and large-scale optical imaging. This helps us better understand the morphology of the quasar host.“, explained Ren.
The future of research
While the new images offer important clues, many questions remain.
To answer the questions raised, scientists plan to use the James Webb Space Telescope, capable of observing in the infrared spectrum.
This technology promises to further detail the composition and interactions of 3C 273 with its surrounding environment.
The combination of Hubble and Webb is seen as crucial to advancing our understanding of quasars, one of the most fascinating phenomena in the universe.
Studies like this not only reveal details about black holes and their structures, but also help to decipher the puzzle of galactic evolution.
With increasingly sophisticated technologies, the future promises significant advances in the exploration of the cosmos. For now, scientists remain intrigued by the “strange things” observed near 3C 273 — a reminder that the universe still holds many secrets waiting to be unlocked.
Lula is in a hurry and wants to perpetuate himself in power. That is why he is handing us over to the Chinese. We will lose everything we have, including our freedom. We will become slaves monitored 24 hours a day. We will live on rations without rights but with obligations.