Physics & Astronomy News

Unusual rings of radiation in space explained
UCLA scientists explain the formation of unusual ring of radiation in space In pondering the mysterious ring in the Earth's Van Allen belts, researchers made a crucial discovery: Not all high-energy particles obey the same physics.

Earth habitable for at least another 1.75 billion years
Habitable conditions on Earth will be possible for at least another 1.75 billion years – according to astrobiologists at the University of East Anglia.
NASA's Deep Impact Produced Deep Results
Launched on a clear winter day in January 2005, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft spanned 268 million miles (431 million kilometers) of deep space in 172 days, then reached out and touched comet Tempel 1.

Chasing the black holes of the ocean
According to researchers some of the largest ocean eddies on Earth are mathematically equivalent to the mysterious black holes of space.

Understanding a new kind of magnetism
Researchers use low-frequency laser pulses to probe the properties of a kind of fluctuating magnetism known as a spin-liquid state.

more physics & astronomy news stories

Powerful Quasars

by Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center and ScienceIQ.com




Image Courtesy NASA
Quasars appear as distant, highly luminous objects that look like stars. Strong evidence now exists that a quasar is produced by gas falling into a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy. Quasars are peculiar objects that radiate as much energy per second as a thousand or more galaxies, from a region that has a diameter about one millionth that of the host galaxy. It is as if a powerhouse the size of a small flashlight produced as much light as all the houses and businesses in the entire L.A. basin!

Quasars are intense sources of X-rays as well as visible light. They are the most powerful type of X-ray source yet discovered. Some quasars are so bright that they can be seen at a distance of 12 billion light years.

The power of a quasar depends on the mass of its central supermassive black hole and the rate at which it swallows matter. Almost all galaxies, including our own, are thought to contain supermassive black holes in their centers. Quasars represent extreme cases where large quantities of gas are pouring into the black hole so rapidly that the energy output is a thousand times greater than the galaxy itself. A galaxy with a somewhat less active supermassive black hole is called an Active Galaxy and its black hole is called an 'Active Galactic Nucleus' or AGN. Our Milky Way Galaxy and our neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, are examples of normal galaxies, where the supermassive black hole has very little gas to capture.

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Science Quote

'Physicists like to think that all you have to do is say, these are the conditions, now what happens next?'

Richard Phillips Feynman
(1918-1988)
Science Sidebar | Science Education Articles
10 Ways to Keep Your Kids Interested In Science

Young children are natural scientists: they ask questions, pick up sticks and bugs outside, and are curious about the world around them. But as they get a bit older, many kids gradually lose their interest in science. They might see it as just another task at school, something that doesn't apply to their lives. Of course nothing could be further from the truth, so here are ten ways you can remind your kids that science is everywhere. Most of these are fun for adults, too! Continue reading ...

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