Why are quasars so far away? Well, a quasar is not forever. They are billions of light years away, which means the light we receive from them, the pictures we take of them, are pictures of things happening billions of years ago.
They represent a phenomenon more common early in the universe's history, when monster Black holes hadn't eaten all the stars around them to fuel their accretion discs and before those holes became too fat to be active.
Neil deGrasse Tyson points out that in order to remain a quasar produces, a black hole must consume about 10 stars a year.
Many consume more than a thousand stars a year, 600 Earths worth of matter every single minute. The more stars a black hole consumes, the larger its event horizon becomes until, eventually, it no longer shreds starts apart to fuel an accretion disc.
Instead, it just swallows them whole in one dimmer, but still terrifying gulp.
Quasars are some of the most ancient things in our Universe. If you could teleport instantaneously to one right now faster then light, it would most likely no longer be burning, what we see are just their ghosts.
Light that left when they were active that travelled longer than they could live.
But quasars can still be born.
They can even be born right here.
As Andromeda galaxy is headed our way. In 3-5 billion years it will collide with our own galaxy, the Milky Way. And the collision could rearrange stars near the galaxy's central black holes to be consumed, reigniting a quasar right here, in our galactic backyard.
Funny enough, right now very few of us even see Andromeda, even though all you need is your unaided eye.
Light from our cities drowns out the sky like a quasar drowns out its host galaxy.
Quasar are far away.
They represent a phenomenon more common early in the universe's history, when monster Black holes hadn't eaten all the stars around them to fuel their accretion discs and before those holes became too fat to be active.
Neil deGrasse Tyson points out that in order to remain a quasar produces, a black hole must consume about 10 stars a year.
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| Neil deGrasse Tyson |
Many consume more than a thousand stars a year, 600 Earths worth of matter every single minute. The more stars a black hole consumes, the larger its event horizon becomes until, eventually, it no longer shreds starts apart to fuel an accretion disc.
Instead, it just swallows them whole in one dimmer, but still terrifying gulp.
Quasars are some of the most ancient things in our Universe. If you could teleport instantaneously to one right now faster then light, it would most likely no longer be burning, what we see are just their ghosts.
Light that left when they were active that travelled longer than they could live.
But quasars can still be born.
They can even be born right here.
As Andromeda galaxy is headed our way. In 3-5 billion years it will collide with our own galaxy, the Milky Way. And the collision could rearrange stars near the galaxy's central black holes to be consumed, reigniting a quasar right here, in our galactic backyard.
Funny enough, right now very few of us even see Andromeda, even though all you need is your unaided eye.
Light from our cities drowns out the sky like a quasar drowns out its host galaxy.
Quasar are far away.
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