{"id":7562,"date":"2024-08-18T10:53:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T14:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/?p=7562"},"modified":"2024-08-18T13:00:35","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T17:00:35","slug":"distant-quasar-halted-star-formation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/2024\/08\/distant-quasar-halted-star-formation\/","title":{"rendered":"Far-off QUASAR May Have Halted Stellar Formation in Nearby Galaxies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomers have discovered that a DISTANT QUASAR<\/strong>\u00a0may be responsible for shutting down star formation in galaxies<\/a> within its vicinity. The quasar, known as VIK J2348-3054<\/strong><\/em>, is one of the farthest known quasars, and its intense radiation seems to have suppressed the creation of new stars in surrounding galaxies<\/a>\u2014extending up to at least 16 million light-years<\/strong> away.<\/p>\n

Quasar: Powerful and Destructive<\/h2>\n

Quasars are some of the brightest and most energetic objects in the universe. They are powered by supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies, where torrid gas<\/strong> orbits and releases enormous amounts of energy.<\/p>\n

In the case of VIK J2348-3054, the quasar's light has travelled 13 billion years<\/strong> to reach us, offering a glimpse of the universe when it was just 770 million years old<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At that time, the black hole powering the quasar was already 2 billion times more massive than the sun<\/strong>, meaning it had consumed a substantial amount of material in a relatively short period.<\/p>\n

Astronomers expected the quasar\u2019s galaxy to be surrounded by many star-forming galaxies, particularly given the dense environment of a galactic cluster<\/strong> where new stars should be forming. However, to their surprise, the exact opposite was observed.<\/p>\n

A Star-Formation Dead Zone<\/h3>\n

Trystan Lambert, an astronomer from the Universidad Diego Portales<\/strong> in Santiago, Chile, and his team discovered a significant void around the quasar. The nearest star-forming galaxy was found 16.8 million light-years<\/strong> away\u2014over six times the distance between the Milky Way<\/strong> and its neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy<\/b>. This suggests that the quasar\u2019s intense radiation has effectively halted the formation of new stars in its vicinity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was shocking,\u201d Lambert said of the finding. \u201cYou would expect more [star-forming galaxies] near the quasar than far away, and we found the exact opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lambert\u2019s team made this discovery by searching a much larger region around the quasar than previous studies had. Their results suggest that quasars<\/strong> are not benign cosmic neighbours, but rather violent forces that impact their surroundings.<\/p>\n

The prevailing theory is that the quasar\u2019s radiation heats up gas in nearby galaxies, preventing it from collapsing to form new stars. Quasars<\/strong> produce vast amounts of energy, and this energy can drastically alter the conditions in nearby galaxies.<\/p>\n

If the gas is too hot, it cannot cool and condense into the dense clouds necessary for star formation. In this way, VIK J2348-3054 could be responsible for creating a star-formation dead zone<\/strong> within its local cosmic neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

However, not all astronomers are convinced that the quasar is solely responsible for this phenomenon. Martin Rees<\/strong>, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge<\/strong>, suggests that the absence of star-forming galaxies close to the quasar could simply be a statistical anomaly.<\/p>\n

Since the volume of space increases with distance, the discovery of more galaxies farther away may be a result of the larger volume of space, rather than the influence of the quasar itself.<\/p>\n

Future Observations Could Confirm the Findings<\/h3>\n

To test this hypothesis, future observations with more sensitive instruments will be needed. If astronomers can detect additional star-forming galaxies<\/strong> at greater distances from the quasar, while still finding none close by, it would strengthen the case that the quasar\u2019s radiation is indeed responsible for halting star formation in its immediate vicinity.<\/p>\n

The discovery also raises intriguing questions about whether quasars may have affected star formation in other galaxies, including our own. One example is M87<\/strong>, a massive galaxy located about 54 million light-years<\/strong> from the Milky Way<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It is home to a supermassive black hole<\/strong> that likely powered a quasar during the early universe. When the universe was younger and smaller, M87 was much closer to the Milky Way, potentially influencing our own galaxy's star formation history.<\/p>\n

Understanding how quasars<\/strong> impact their environments could offer valuable insights into the evolution of galaxies and the complex interplay between black holes<\/strong>, star formation<\/strong>, and cosmic history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astronomers have discovered that a DISTANT QUASAR\u00a0may be responsible for shutting down star formation in galaxies within its vicinity. The quasar, known as VIK J2348-3054, is one of the farthest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7562"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7568,"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions\/7568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}