Virtual Earth-Space Telescope
Scientists have created a virtual Earth-space telescope system with the highest resolution of any astronomical observation ever made.
About the telescope:
Researchers created this
telescope by combining the Russian RadioAstron satellite
with the ground-based telescopes. The RadioAstron satellite was
combined with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, The Very Large Array
in New Mexico, the Effelsberg Telescope in Germany, and the Arecibo Observatory
in Puerto Rico. This combined system produces a virtual radio telescope more
than 100,000 miles across.
What has been found out?
With this, scientists have
unveiled an unusually hot quasar jet in the Milky Way.
§ Scientists have pointed out these quasar jets at a quasar called 3C
273, more than 2 billion light-years from Earth.
§ Quasars like 3C 273 propel huge jets of material outward at speeds
nearly that of light. These powerful jets emit radio waves. The emission was
about 100 billion degrees.
§ The observations also showed, for the first time, substructure
caused by scattering of the radio waves by the tenuous interstellar material in
our own Milky Way Galaxy.
What are Quasars?
Quasars are supermassive black
holes at the cores of galaxies. Quasars, also called
quasi-stellar radio sources, are the most energetic and distant members of a
class of objects called active galactic nuclei (AGN).
§ Their spectra contain very broad emission lines, unlike any known
from stars, hence the name “quasi-stellar.” Their luminosity can be 100 times
greater than that of the Milky Way.
§ Quasars are believed to be powered by accretion of material into
supermassive black holes in the nuclei of distant galaxies, making these
luminous versions of the general class of objects known as active galaxies.
§ Quasars also emit visible light, ultraviolet rays, infrared waves,
X-rays, and gamma-rays.
