- #1
medgalis
- 11
- 0
I am really interested what are quasars and how do they work.
... there is now a scientific consensus that a quasar is a compact region in the center of a massive galaxy surrounding its central supermassive black hole. Its size is 10–10,000 times the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole. The quasar is powered by an accretion disc around the black hole...
... the intense gravitational gradient gives rise to intense frictional heating; the accretion disc of a black hole is hot enough to emit X-rays just outside of the event horizon. The large luminosity of quasars is believed to be a result of gas being accreted by supermassive black holes...
Astronomically, the most important property of compact objects is that they provide a supremely efficient mechanism for converting gravitational energy into electromagnetic radiation.[
Naty1 said:Via wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar
and be sure to follow links like 'accretion disk' to read more: [There is a LOT to learn, so read slowly and think about descriptions you encounter.]
so the energy to power such sources is believed to originate from the gravitational energy of black holes...
Naty1 said:Happened to just stumble across this of interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity#Black_holes_and_other_compact_objects
A quasar is an extremely energetic and distant object in space that emits large amounts of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is thought to be powered by a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy.
Quasars are believed to form when a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy consumes large amounts of matter, causing it to emit intense radiation as it is pulled into the black hole.
Quasars are located at incredibly large distances from Earth, typically billions of light years away. This means that the light we see from them has traveled for billions of years before reaching us.
Quasars are incredibly bright due to the intense radiation emitted from the matter falling into the supermassive black hole at their center. This radiation can outshine an entire galaxy and can be detected from billions of light years away.
Studying quasars can provide us with valuable information about the early universe and how galaxies evolve over time. They can also help us understand more about the structure and behavior of supermassive black holes, which are still a mystery to scientists.