Scientists detect most powerful quasar blast in Chile

(Xinhua) -- A group of scientists from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) working in Chile have discovered a quasar with the most powerful energy outflow ever witnessed, the ESO said on Wednesday.

The outflow of energy from the quasi-stellar radio source, or "quasar," is at least five times more powerful than any that has been detected before, said scientists who detected the blast using the ESO's Very Large Telescope stationed in Paranal Observatory in northern Chile.

Quasars are very bright, distant galactic centers powered by supermassive black holes. While black holes are noted for pulling material in, most quasars also accelerate some of the material around them and eject it at high speed.

Quasars tend to inhabit in the very centers of active young galaxies. They are so distant that it usually takes billions of years for the quasars' light to reach even the most powerful telescopes. Therefore, quasars can follow objects from much earlier in the universe's history, providing some clues to the ancient history of the universe.

"We have discovered the most powerful quasar blast until now. The energy emitted from the quasar... is at least equivalent to 2 trillion times the power output emanated by the sun," said team leader Nahum Arav.

To put it another way, the emission is "100 times more powerful than the total energy production of our galaxy, the Milky Way," said Arav.

"It is a really huge blast," said Arav, adding that "it's the first time a quasar's burst has been measured to obtain the type of high energies predicted by theories."

Numerous theories suggest that the impact of these energy blast can solve several mysteries of modern cosmology, including how a galaxy's mass is associated to the mass of its central black hole, or why there are so few large galaxies in the universe.

Scientists were not certain whether quasars could produce blasts powerful enough to cause these phenomena.

The newly discovered emissions are located about 1,000 light years away from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the quasar, known as SDSS J1106+1939.

"I have been searching for something like this for decades. It's thrilling to finally find these huge bursts predicted by theory," said Arav.