Emily Chan
They measured the fluctuations of the light to learn more about the movement of the gases in the accretion disk.
By looking at parts of the quasar where light was missing, they were able to map out the winds that were made of gaseous carbon. The gas was absorbing the light at rates that were faster than the researchers had expected.
“That shift tells us the gas is moving fast, and faster all the time,” Robert Wheatley, a researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said. “The wind is accelerating because it’s being pushed by radiation that is blasted off of the accretion disk.”
The winds pushing out gases from quasars are so powerful that they can stop a star from forming or accelerate its formation. Quasars are challenging to observe, so hopefully, further studies can provide even more information.
The study was published in the Astrophysical Journal.
