This article was originally published on The Cosmic Companion by James Maynard, founder and publisher of The Cosmic Companion. These newly-recognized pairs are the oldest of the 100 or so quasar pairs currently known to astronomers. Yue Shen of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explains. So finding these double quasars is like finding a needle in a haystack,” Dr. “We estimate that in the distant universe, for every 1,000 quasars, there is one double quasar. Quasars are found throughout the Universe, but quasar pairs are rare. A long time ago, in galaxies far, far away… However, researchers were unable to find any object in their view capable of causing this effect. This could occur due to gravitational lensing - the warping of light caused by a massive galaxy in-between an astronomical target and the Earth. ![]() Finding dual quasars at this early epoch is important because we can now test our long-standing ideas of how black holes and their host galaxies evolve together,” Zakamska said.Īlthough researchers believe these quasar pairs are in the positions they calculated, there remains a small chance that these pairs of images may be double images of lone quasars. “Quasars make a profound impact on galaxy formation in the universe. This examination also provided proof of their positions, as well as information regarding their chemical compositions. Using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, researchers broke light from the quasars into component colors, allowing measurements of the movements of the bodies. The Hubble Space Telescope was then able to resolve two of the pairs, showing separations between the pairs of enigmatic objects. These candidates were then matched with data from the Gaia spacecraft, narrowing the search to four potential quasar pairs. Studying the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a 3D map of the Cosmos, astronomers selected 15 quasars for closer examination. Quasars are not exceptionally rare, but finding these objects in pairs remains a rarity. One of the quasar pairs are seen as they existed 10 billion years before our time. Shen (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) The two quasar pairs examined in this study, as seen in visible light by the Hubble Space Telescope.įinding these quasars was the result of collecting data from several telescopes on and above the Earth, including observations from the Gemini Observatory. Zakamska (Johns Hopkins University), and Y. Paring down the pairs Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Nadia Zakamska of Johns Hopkins University. “This truly is the first sample of dual quasars at the peak epoch of galaxy formation that we can use to probe ideas about how supermassive black holes come together to eventually form a binary,” explained Dr. This proximity suggests the quasars are found within merging galaxies. This may sound like quite a distance, but this is just one-tenth the distance from one side of our galaxy to the other. The quasars in each pair examined in this new study are just 10,000 light years from each other. While this process is active, these supermassive black holes can outshine entire galaxies. Matter falling into the behemoth void in the galactic core radiates vast amounts of energy out to space, forming a quasar. Quasars are extremely energetic galaxies, powered by highly-active supermassive black holes near their centers. Two quasar pairs seen in the early Universe are the oldest, most-distant bodies objects of their kind yet seen in the Cosmos. Eventually, the quasars would have merged into single black holes of enormous size.Īnalysis of the study was published in Nature Astronomy. As the quasars drifted toward each other, energy would have raced from the bodies, radiating into space. ![]() The quasar pairs examined in this study are seen as they were the distant past, less than four billion years after the Big Bang.
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