Credits/Science: NASA, ESA, Kristina Nyland (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Credits/Science: NASA, ESA, Kristina Nyland (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
"The biggest surprise was seeing the distinct spiral shape in the Hubble Space Telescope images. At first I was worried I had made an error," said Achenbach, who made the discovery during the course of a four-week internship.
“We typically see quasars as older galaxies that have grown very massive, along with their central black holes, after going through messy mergers and have come out with an elliptical shape,” said astronomer Kristina Nyland of the Naval Research Laboratory, Achenbach’s adviser on the research.
"It's extremely rare and exciting to find a quasar-hosting galaxy with spiral arms and a black hole that is more than 400 million times the mass of the Sun — which is pretty big — plus young jets that weren't detectable 20 years ago," Nyland said.
The unusual quasar takes its place amid an active debate in the astronomy community over what triggers quasar jets, which can be significant in the evolution of galaxies, as the jets can suppress star formation. Some astronomers suspect that quasar jets are triggered by major galaxy mergers, as the material from two or more galaxies mashes together, and heated gas is funneled toward merged black holes. Spiral galaxy quasars like J0742+2704, however, suggest that there may be other pathways for jet formation.
While J0742+2704 has maintained its spiral shape, the Hubble image does show intriguing signs of its potential interaction with other galaxies. One of its arms shows distortion, possibly a tidal tail.
"Clearly there is something interesting going on. While the quasar
has not experienced a major disruptive merger, it may be interacting
with another galaxy, which is gravitationally tugging at its spiral
arm," said Nyland.
Another galaxy that appears nearby in the Hubble image (though its
location still needs to be spectroscopically confirmed) has a ring
structure. This rare shape can occur after a galaxy interaction in which
a smaller galaxy punches through the center of a spiral galaxy. "The
ring galaxy near the quasar host galaxy could be an intriguing clue as
to what is happening in this system. We may be witnessing the aftermath
of the interaction that triggered this young quasar jet," said Nyland.
Both Achenbach and Nyland emphasize that this intriguing discovery is
really a new starting point, and there will be additional
multi-wavelength analysis of J0742+2704 with data from NASA's Chandra
X-ray Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
(ALMA) in Chile. It's also a case for keeping our eyes on the skies,
said Achenbach.
"If we looked at this galaxy 20 years, or maybe even a decade ago, we
would have seen a fairly average quasar and never known it would
eventually be home to newborn jets," said Achenbach. "It goes to show
that if you keep searching, you can find something remarkable that you
never expected, and it can send you in a whole new direction of
discovery."
These results are being presented at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three
decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our
fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of
international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency).
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the
telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in
Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope
Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science
operations for NASA.
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Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
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