mckitterick (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mckitterick) wrote2008-04-09 11:28 am
mckitterick) wrote2008-04-09 11:28 am
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Astro-Image of the Day: quasar jets
This cool astro-image shows massive jets firing out of a BAL quasar. BAL stands for "broad absorption line"; that is, the quasar is surrounded by a thick cloud of gas and dust that absorbs a lot of light emissions, creating absorption lines in spectrographs of the object.
Click the image to see the story.
So what creates these jets and gas cloud? Why, a massive black hole, that's what. As matter falls into the black hole, it goes into fast orbit, creating an accretion disk: the stuff that creates the absorption cloud. Then, as matter finally falls through the event horizon into the black hole per se, mighty x-ray jets fire out from the poles.
Viola! Astronomical drama.
Best,
Chris
Click the image to see the story.
So what creates these jets and gas cloud? Why, a massive black hole, that's what. As matter falls into the black hole, it goes into fast orbit, creating an accretion disk: the stuff that creates the absorption cloud. Then, as matter finally falls through the event horizon into the black hole per se, mighty x-ray jets fire out from the poles.
Viola! Astronomical drama.
Best,
Chris