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Hubble Telescope Directly Observes Quasar Accretion Disc Surrounding Black Hole
A team of scientists has used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to observe a quasar accretion disc — a brightly glowing disc of matter that is slowly being sucked into its galaxy’s central black hole. Their study makes use of a novel technique that uses gravitational lensing to give an immense boost to the power of the telescope. The incredible precision of the method has allowed astronomers to directly measure the disc’s size and plot the temperature across different parts of the disc. Image credit: NASA, ESA, J.A. Munoz (University of Valencia)
Thanks to the magic of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of international astronomers have made an incredible observation – a quasar accretion disc surrounding a black hole. By employing a technique known as gravitation lensing, the researchers have been able to get an accurate size measurement and spectral data. While you might not think this exciting at first, know that this type of observation is akin to spotting individual grains of sand on the Moon! (…)
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© tammy for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: accretion disk, AGN, Early Univserse, quasar, spectra
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