Modern technologies and problems of studying the Milky Way
The European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra space telescopes captured the aftermath of three bright explosions echoing in the Milky Way’s outer spiral arms. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help scientists better understand the fainter components of our Milky Way galaxy—the gas and dust scattered between stars, known as the interstellar medium. Scientists can also gain insight into the ages, masses, and sizes of stars using the Kepler space telescope, which provided asteroseismic data on approximately 16,000 stars before its decommissioning in 2018. A laser star pointer mounted on Cerro Pachón in central Chile points upward across the Gemini South observatory’s field of view, illuminating the Milky Way.
Quasars are among the earliest objects in the Universe. Are they creators or destroyers of galaxies?
Quasars represent a stage in a galaxy’s life during which large volumes of matter spiral toward a central supermassive black hole, releasing enormous amounts of energy. During this stage, the galactic core shines brighter than anything else in the universe, often outshining the rest of its host galaxy by hundreds or thousands of times. Quasars are the extremely bright centers of galaxies, powered by actively fueled supermassive black holes. Studying these objects can help researchers understand how black holes evolve throughout the modern Universe. However, by attracting gas and dust, these black holes release so much energy that they can outshine entire host galaxies, making them difficult to study.
Dark matter and the cosmic web connect galaxies like city superhighways
Giant filaments crisscross the universe, connecting galaxy clusters like superhighways between cities. Their shape and structure contain vital information about the universe’s contents and history. However, their complex shape makes them extremely difficult to measure. Now, researchers have presented a new method for measuring the mass of these filaments, which could be used to unlock the secrets of dark matter and dark energy.
Supermassive black holes protect galaxies from growing too large
Galaxies could live longer if supermassive black holes act as their “hearts and lungs,” keeping them breathing and preventing them from growing too big. That’s the suggestion of a new study, which suggests that the universe would have aged much faster and today be filled with “zombie” galaxies containing dead or dying stars if it weren’t for the supermassive black holes that are thought to reside at the heart of all large galaxies. The astrophysicists behind the discoveries compare the jets of gas and radiation that supermassive black holes blow from their poles into their airways to breathing and lungs.