An immense galactic emission was spotted coming out of a quasar

Oct 23, 2012 14:46 GMT  ·  By

The universe is home to many strange and wonderful things, and we may have just discovered one that is equal parts of both. And it's all thanks to a quasar that astronomers call PKS 0637-752.

There was a time when solar emissions were considered larger than life, due to the speed with which they travel and, of course, their size.

They probably don't even qualify as small now that astronomers have discovered a galactic emission that spans 2 million light years.

The image up on the left was taken with the CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array radio telescope located in New South Wales Australia.

It shows the radio wavelengths of a massive jet of particles being produced by a quasar that, experts believe, was formed 6,000,000,000 years ago.

Called PKS 0637-752, it is a young galaxy with a supermassive black hole in the center, or so astronomers think at least.

The gas emission being sent out at nearly the speed of light is peculiar, to say the least, and not just because of its size.

For one thing, it seems to be composed of “knots” separated by vacuum areas of 160,000 to 360,000 light years each.

Secondly, the pattern resembles an afterburner emission from a jet invented by us humans, known as “shock diamond.” It suggests that the material is periodically turning on or off, or that it is sent out through shockwaves of some sort.

Thirdly, the extended jet of cosmic material, whatever it is, shined with the power equivalent to 10 trillion suns.

If a black hole really is at the core of the quasar, it is spinning gas and dust in a fashion similar to a bathtub drain. This motion accelerates charged particles and causes them to produce immense levels of radiation, hence our ability to actually spot the formation.