Astronomers Report Most Distant Blazar Ever Observed (phys.org) 17
PSO J030947.49+271757.31 is the most distant blazar ever observed, originating when the universe was less than 1 billion years old, almost 13 billion years ago. Phys.Org reports: PSO J0309+27, for short, was discovered by a team of researchers led by Silvia Belladitta, a Ph.D. student at the University of Insubria, working for the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Milan, under the supervision of Alberto Moretti and Alessandro Caccianiga. While they suspected that the object was distant, and observations from the Swift Space Telescope showed that its X-ray power matched that of other blazars, it was the observations obtained with the optical Multi-Double Object Spectrographs (MODS) at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) that confirmed it as a record-breaking distant blazar, the farthest observed in the known universe.
"The spectrum that appeared before our eyes confirmed first that PSO J0309+27 is actually an active galactic nuclei (AGN), or a galaxy whose central nucleus is extremely bright due to the presence in its center of a supermassive black hole fed by the gas and the stars it engulfs," says Belladitta, first author of the paper describing the discovery, published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. "In addition, the data obtained by LBT also confirmed that PSO J0309+27 is really far away from us, according to the shift of the color of its light toward red or redshift with a record value of 6.1, never measured before for a similar object." PSO J0309+27 has therefore proved to be the most powerful persistent radio source in the primordial universe, within the first billion years since its formation. Observations taken by the XRT telescope on board the Swift satellite have also made it possible to establish that, even in X-rays, PSO J0309+27 is the brightest cosmic source ever observed at these distances.
"The spectrum that appeared before our eyes confirmed first that PSO J0309+27 is actually an active galactic nuclei (AGN), or a galaxy whose central nucleus is extremely bright due to the presence in its center of a supermassive black hole fed by the gas and the stars it engulfs," says Belladitta, first author of the paper describing the discovery, published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. "In addition, the data obtained by LBT also confirmed that PSO J0309+27 is really far away from us, according to the shift of the color of its light toward red or redshift with a record value of 6.1, never measured before for a similar object." PSO J0309+27 has therefore proved to be the most powerful persistent radio source in the primordial universe, within the first billion years since its formation. Observations taken by the XRT telescope on board the Swift satellite have also made it possible to establish that, even in X-rays, PSO J0309+27 is the brightest cosmic source ever observed at these distances.
Units (Score:2)
Red shift of 6.1 what ?
Re: Units (Score:5, Informative)
Red shift of x means: 1 + x = observed wavelength/ emitted wavelength.
No units.
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Red shift of 6.1 what ?
Just goes to show a low Slashdot ID doesn't make you any smarter.
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243626 is a low Slashdot ID?
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all the way down
And? Is it a two-button ... (Score:4, Funny)
... three button or six button?
I want to know what style they have at the other end of the universe.
"A blazar is a feeding super-massive black-hole" (Score:5, Informative)
For those feeling as dumb as I did when reading the summary:
A blazar is a feeding super-massive black-hole (SMBH) in the heart of a distant galaxy that produces a high-energy jet viewed face-on from Earth. Like other forms of active galactic nuclei (AGN), blazars are the most luminous and energetic objects in the known universe.
https://www.blazarventures.com... [blazarventures.com]
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Good to know (Score:2)
The most distant bazaar I ever visited was in Tangiers.
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Fez required, blazer optional.
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Fezzes are cool.
Mind blowing (Score:2)
PSO J0309+27, for short, ... (Score:2)
... whew!