Accessibility Links

  • Skip to Main Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Footer
Subscribe Podcast TV show Newsletter Webinars
Sign In Register
Sign In Register
Settings Sign out
My account
Subscribe
    Subscribe
    Reviews
    Reviews
    View all Reviews
    How we review
    Telescopes
    Cameras
    Telescope mounts
    Eyepieces
    Binoculars for astronomy
    Finderscopes
    Astronomy accessories
    Software
    Top astro kit
    Advice
    Advice
    View all Advice
    Beginners
    Skills
    Astronomy DIY
    Buyer's Guides
    Online planetarium
    Science
    Missions
    Astronomy news
    Astrophotography
    Astrophotography
    View all Astrophotography
    Astrophotography guides
    Send us your images
    Subscribe
    Podcast
    TV show
    Newsletter
    Webinars
    1. Home
    2. Quasars

    Quasars

    Scientists are watching pulsars carefully to detect the rippling fabric of the cosmos. Credit: dani3315/iStock/Getty Images
    Science

    Searching for gravitational waves from supermassive black holes

    Artist's impression of how gravitational lensing works. Image Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF; NASA, Hubble Heritage Team, (STScI/AURA), ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI). Additional Processing: Robert Gendler
    Astronomy news

    Astronomers spot galaxy 5 billion lightyears away

    This image shows an artist’s conception of the “changing-look quasar” as is appared in early 2015. The glowing blue region shows the last of the gas being swallowed by the central black hole as it shuts off. The spectrum is the previous one obtained by the SDSS in 2003. Image credit: Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital, Inc.; SDSS collaboration.
    Astronomy news

    Astronomers spot disappearing quasar

    Advertisement
    395227main_quasar_galaxy
    Astronomy news

    Powerful gamma rays seen in distant galaxy

    galaxy fingerprintMAIN
    Astronomy news

    Quasar light reveals galaxy ‘fingerprints’

    This is an artist’s impression of the quasar 3C 279. Astronomers connected the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), in Chile, to the Submillimeter Array (SMA) in Hawaii, USA, and the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) in Arizona, USA for the first time, to make the sharpest observations ever, of the centre of a distant galaxy, the bright quasar 3C 279. Quasars are the very bright centres of distant galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes. This quasar contains a black hole with a mass about one billion times that of the Sun, and is so far from Earth that its light has taken more than 5 billion years to reach us. The team were able to probe scales of less than a light-year across the quasar — a remarkable achievement for a target that is billions of light-years away.
    Astronomy news

    Quasars control star formation

    Advertisement
    Save when you subscribe today!
    Try our magazine today!

    Delivered direct to your door!

    Subscribe today
    skad (1) (1)
    Digital edition

    Download it today

    Subscribe today

    Site footer

    • Visit us on Facebook
    • Visit us on Twitter
    • Visit us on YouTube
    • Subscribe to our RSS feed
    • About us
    • Contact us
    • Brands
    • Cookies
    • Privacy
    • Terms and conditions
    • Licensing
    • Subscribe
    • Manage cookies
    Immediate Media
    BBC Sky At Night Magazine is published by Immediate Media Company Limited under licence from BBC Studios, which helps fund new BBC programmes. © Immediate Media Company Ltd 2021.
    Partner logo