New data from the Hubble Space Telescope details what could be the most powerful phenomenon in the universe: a 'quasar tsunami', a cosmic storm of such terrifying force that it could scatter an entire galaxy.
“No other phenomenon carries more mechanical energy,” said Principal Investigator Naum Arav of Virginia Tech. 'Winds push hundreds of solar masses of matter annually. The amount of mechanical energy carried by these streams is several hundred times the luminosity of the entire Milky Way galaxy. '
Araw and his colleagues described the devastating phenomena in a series of six articles published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements.
Essentially, a quasar is a type of supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy that releases incredible amounts of energy. However, in a quasar tsunami, this phenomenon spirals out of control, heating stellar material to billions of degrees – and throwing it into interstellar space.
Researchers believe that quasar tsunamis can explain a long-standing cosmological mystery: why there are so few truly huge galaxies in the universe.
The theory states that when a galaxy reaches a certain size, its central black hole becomes hyperactive as a result of a quasar tsunami, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sources: Photo: NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted / STScI
