3D space imagery could reveal how quasars influence galaxies



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Incredible immersion

NASA wants to take a fresh look at some distant galaxies.

When the James Webb Space Telescope is launched, the space agency plans to use it to capture 3D images of three distant quasars and the host galaxies swirling around them. The new images, NASA hopes, will finally help explain how, exactly, these bizarre supermassive black holes are shaping and reshaping their galaxies.

All for one

Quasars are supermassive black holes that give off so much energy that they feast they can eclipse the galaxies that host them.

They are so active, in fact, that astronomers believe they are stifling the development of new stars in their galaxies, as matter that would normally cluster together to form a new star tends to be blown away by their powerful winds.

Cosmic investigation

The new images, which would be assembled after analyzing several different wavelengths of light, would give NASA its first 3D map of these cosmic winds. Because the winds are not symmetrical, NASA researchers say in a press release, they are too unpredictable to be simulated in a computer and must be captured in an image instead.

“Physically very small objects, supermassive black holes seem to have a huge impact on the evolution of galaxies and ultimately on the appearance of our universe today,” Dominika Wylezalek, researcher at the University of Heidelberg told head of the NASA project.

READ MORE: Space telescope to study quasars and their host galaxies in three dimensions [NASA]

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