"Inhaling 3 Galaxies at Once"...'Monster' Quasar Captured [Reading Science]

US Johns Hopkins University Research Team Analyzes JWST Observation Results
"Can Understand Galaxy Absorption-Merger in the Early Big Bang 11.5 Billion Years Ago"

Photo by NASA

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Humanity's eye exploring the secrets of the universe, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has this time captured the image of a 'monster quasar' devouring three galaxies at once.

On the 21st, according to NASA, the astronomy research team at Johns Hopkins University announced on the 20th the results of capturing and analyzing such an image using JWST's Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). The team observed a brightly shining giant red quasar named 'SDSS J165202.64+172852.3', located about 11.5 billion light-years from Earth. A quasar is a massive light source created as a supermassive black hole, located at the center of a galaxy and weighing hundreds of thousands of times more than the Sun, absorbs gas and other materials. It appears star-like, hence also called a quasi-stellar object, and emits strong radio waves.

By analyzing the quasar's image and data, the research team discovered an astonishing fact. Previous observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes had detected only the quasar and one galaxy. However, analysis of JWST's observations confirmed that the quasar is devouring at least three galaxies. It was also confirmed that these three galaxies are moving at an extremely rapid pace. This indicates that these galaxies have very large masses and are dense galaxies that existed shortly after the Big Bang, before they had moved far apart.

Experts explained that this is an opportunity to observe how the early galaxies that formed the universe we see today merged. Professor Dominika Willezalek of Heidelberg University in Germany said in an interview with NASA, "Since the Big Bang, such early galaxy protoclusters have been difficult to form and discover," adding, "This is a very interesting discovery that will help us understand how galaxies evolved in the high-density environment of the early universe."