Astronomers Intrigued by Galaxy Blasting Its Neighbor With Giant Energy Beam
Each time the galaxies conclude their posturing and charge in for a clash, one of them impales its opponent with a powerful beam of radiation, crippling its ability to form new stars. In cosmic terms, it's the definition of a below the belt blow — and a massive one at that.
This lopsided showdown was reported in a new study set to be published in the journal Nature, marking the first observation of a galaxy blasting its neighbor with radiation, and furthers our understanding of the huge galactic meat grinders known as quasars.
"We hence call this system the 'cosmic joust'," said study co-lead author Pasquier Noterdaeme, a researcher at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, in a statement about the work.
The light we're seeing from this joust is over 11 billion years old, dating it to when the universe was less than one-fifth of its current age. Bloodsport, it seems, is a time-honored tradition.
Using observations made with the Very Large Telescope and the ALMA telescope in Chile, the astronomers determined that the galaxies are veering towards each other at astounding speeds exceeding 311 miles per second. After crossing paths, they circle back, then wind up to hurtle towards each other yet again.
One galaxy, it appears, is fairly typical. But the other is dominated by a quasar, a luminous region at the center of the galaxy where a supermassive black hole churns through billions of stars' worth of dust and gases. As the doomed material swirls into the black hole, they become so hot that they produce light capable of outshining entire galaxies, including the Milky Way.
"We discovered a quasar — likely triggered by the merging of two galaxies — that is actively transforming the gas structure in its companion galaxy," Noterdaeme told Gizmodo. "The idea that galaxy mergers give rise to quasars has long been proposed, mainly supported by statistical studies of host galaxy morphologies."
"In our case,' Noterdaeme added, "we caught the two galaxies in the act."
When they looked closer, the researchers found that when the quasar-powered galaxy skewered its opponent, the invading beam of radiation disrupted the clouds of gas and dust it penetrated, taking out stellar nurseries that are prime regions for forming stars.
For the one wielding the weapon, this had an added effect. Like blood running down a blade, some of the gases from the impaled galaxy trickled back to the attacker, feeding even more material into the quasar's voracious black hole.
It's not a spectacle for the faint of heart. But if you count yourself among the coliseum mob cheering on the gladiatorial carnage, there's good news. Noterdaeme said that the next generation of observatories, namely the under-construction Extremely Large Telescope, will allow astronomers to "better understand the evolution of quasars and their effect on host and nearby galaxies" — delivering you all the gory details in bouts like these.
More on astronomy: Scientists Intrigued by Bridge of Dark Matter Inside Huge Galaxy Cluster
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
2 hours ago
Ancient DNA shows genetic link between Egypt and Mesopotamia
WASHINGTON -- Ancient DNA has revealed a genetic link between the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Researchers sequenced whole genomes from the teeth of a remarkably well-preserved skeleton found in a sealed funeral pot in an Egyptian tomb site dating to between 4,495 and 4,880 years ago. Four-fifths of the genome showed links to North Africa and the region around Egypt. But a fifth of the genome showed links to the area in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, known as the Fertile Crescent, where Mesopotamian civilization flourished. 'The finding is highly significant" because it 'is the first direct evidence of what has been hinted at' in prior work,' said Daniel Antoine, curator of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. Earlier archeological evidence has shown trade links between Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as similarities in pottery-making techniques and pictorial writing systems. While resemblances in dental structures suggested possible ancestral links, the new study clarifies the genetic ties. The Nile River is 'likely to have acted as an ancient superhighway, facilitating the movement of not only cultures and ideas, but people,' said Antoine, who was not involved in the study. The skeleton was found in an Egyptian tomb complex at the archaeological site of Nuwayrat, inside a chamber carved out from a rocky hillside. An analysis of wear and tear on the skeleton — and the presence of arthritis in specific joints — indicates the man was likely in his 60s and may have worked as a potter, said co-author and bioarchaeologist Joel Irish of Liverpool John Moores University. The man lived just before or near the start of ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified as one state, leading to a period of relative political stability and cultural innovation — including the construction of the Giza pyramids. 'This is the time that centralized power allowed the formation of ancient Egypt as we know it,' said co-author Linus Girdland-Flink, a paleogeneticist at the University of Aberdeen. At approximately the same time, Sumerian city-states took root in Mesopotamia and cuneiform emerged as a writing system. Researchers said analysis of other ancient DNA samples is needed to obtain a clearer picture of the extent and timing of movements between the two cultural centers. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
2 hours ago
NASA detects new planet with temperatures that suggest habitable conditions
The James Webb telescope has made another stunning discovery -- this time of a massive planet that could potentially sustain life, according to multiple space agencies. Astronomers have captured "compelling evidence" of a planet with a mass about 100 times the size of Earth orbiting a young, red dwarf star 34 light-years away called TWA 7 or CE Antilae. The planet, named TWA 7b, was detected by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever put into space, according to NASA. An initial analysis suggests the object could be a young, cold planet with a temperature near 120 degrees Fahrenheit, NASA said. Life can grow and reproduce starting at about 5 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 251 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists say. An international team of astronomers noticed a faint infrared source in a disk of debris surrounding the star, a distance about 50 times the space between Earth and the Sun, NASA said. They then used the telescope's mid-infrared instrument to suppress the bright glare of the host star to reveal the faint objects nearby, a method called high-contrast imaging that allows astronomers to directly detect planets that would otherwise be lost in the "overwhelming" light. If confirmed, this would be the first time the James Webb telescope captured a direct image that led to the discovery of a planet, rather than gravitational lensing -- a technique based on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, according to astronomers. The detection would match the expected position of a planet and explain key features of planets seen in the debris disk, according to the space agency. The source of the infrared light is located within three dust rings observed surrounding TWA 7. The debris disk surrounding TWA 7 is one of the youngest debris disks known to date, according to a paper published last week in Nature. "Our observations reveal a strong candidate for a planet shaping the structure of the TWA 7 debris disk, and its position is exactly where we expected to find a planet of this mass," Anne-Marie Lagrange, a researcher at the Observatoire de Paris-PSL and Université Grenoble Alpes in France and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. The discovery is an "exciting step forward in our understanding of planetary systems," said co-author Mathilde Malin, an assistant research associate of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a statement.
National Geographic
2 hours ago
- National Geographic
This ancient Egyptian left behind 4,500-year-old DNA. It was used to recreate his face.
Scientists have for the first time sequenced the most complete and oldest ancient Egyptian genome ever found—unlocking new secrets from the Old Kingdom. This facial reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian whose genome was sequenced was based off a 3D-scan of the skull. Illustration by Caroline Wilkinson, Liverpool John Moores University/Morez, A. (2025), Nature Sealed in a ceramic funerary pot, knees curled to his chin, the Egyptian skeleton lay undisturbed for thousands of years. In 1902, British archaeologists excavated him from his tomb carved into a limestone hillside in the Nuwayrat necropolis, more than 150 miles south of Cairo. While the pharaohs of his time built colossal monuments like the Great Pyramid of Giza, this man, likely a potter who lived 4,500 to 4,800 years ago, left behind a different kind of legacy: his exceptionally well-preserved DNA. Somehow, his remains endured centuries of scorching Egyptian heat and even Nazi bombings while housed in Liverpool, England, during World War II. Now scientists have sequenced the first whole genome of an ancient Egyptian from intact DNA extracted from in his teeth. The study, published Wednesday in Nature, describes the oldest Egyptian DNA ever recovered, radiocarbon dated to between 2855 and 2570 B.C. This was during the end of the Early Dynastic and the beginning of the Old Kingdom periods, when Egypt's rulers consolidated power and ushered in the 'Age of the Pyramids.' 'There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ancient genomes from across the world,' says Linus Girdland-Flink, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and a co-corresponding author of the paper. To date, scientists have collected ancient DNA from Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo sapiens from 45,000 years ago. 'Yet, Egypt has remained a kind of white spot on the map of this big puzzle of human genetic ancestry.' Previously, the oldest DNA recovered from ancient Egypt came from three mummies buried at the Abusir el-Meleq necropolis and dated between 787 and 23 B.C. But those sequences only represented partial genomes. The new genome is complete and comes from an individual who lived some 1,500 years earlier. Pottery coffin and archaeological remains of the Nuwayrat individual, as discovered in 1902. Photograph Courtesy Garstang Museum, University of Liverpool 'This genome allows us–for the first time–to get insights into the genetic ancestry of an ancient Egyptian individual from the Old Kingdom period,' Adeline Morez Jacobs, a biological anthropologist who conducted the research while pursuing her doctoral degree at the Liverpool John Moores University, said during a press briefing. It also allowed for scientists to partially reconstruct what the person's face might have looked like. Daniel Antoine, head of the department of Egypt and Sudan at The British Museum in London, who peer-reviewed the paper, praised the work. 'Although this is based on one individual, the finding is highly significant as ancient DNA rarely survives in the Nile valley,' he says. With it, scientists can start to unravel genetic clues to how different populations of people interacted in ancient Egypt. Ancient genetic ancestry revealed With the DNA sequenced, scientists can start to ask questions about this ancient individual, starting with a basic one: who were his ancestors? While this is the lineage of just one person, it could help historians understand how people migrated and mixed in ancient Egypt. About 80 percent of the man's ancestry traces back to Neolithic populations in North Africa. The remaining 20 percent is linked to ancient peoples from West Asia, including Mesopotamia and the eastern Fertile Crescent, which encompass present day Iraq, western Iran, parts of Syria and the extreme southeast of Turkey, Morez Jacobs says. They did not find evidence of East African or sub-Saharan African ancestry in the Nuwayrat individual. The researchers don't know when in the Nuwayrat man's lineage these two populations mixed, but say it likely occurred over hundreds or even thousands of years in the man's ancestry, and maybe multiple times. This genetic data aligns with archaeological evidence, suggesting that in addition to trading goods like crops, animals and culture like writing systems and the pottery wheel, people themselves were moving and intermingling between regions. 'The paper constitutes a significant milestone in the field of ancient Egyptian genomics,' says Yehia Gad, scientific supervisor of the ancient DNA lab at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, who was not involved in the study. He says the new finding 'reinforces the status of ancient Egypt as a hub and melting pot of the old world.' The next steps for the team, says Girdland-Flink, is to collaborate with Egyptian scientists to further decipher Egypt's past. Gad, who helps lead Egypt's national genome project, which aims to sequence the genomes of 100,000 Egyptian adults and 200 ancient Egyptian mummies, says he welcomes the idea. 'We can all serve and work together to draw a better picture of this fascinating ancient civilization, which constitutes an important stage in the journey of humanity,' he says. Facial Reconstruction and Potential Controversy In addition to sequencing the Nuwayrat man's genome, the researchers also unveiled a facial reconstruction made by forensic anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson. Wilkinson, who leads the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University, previously recreated the faces of figures like Ramesses II and Cleopatra's sister Arsinoë IV. Starting with a 3D scan of his skull, she constructed his facial features like the jawline, nose, and eyes—body parts that are relatively easy to predict from bone structure alone, she says. The ears and mouth, by contrast, are more difficult. Genetic analysis suggested the man likely had brown eyes, brown hair and skin pigmentation 'ranging from dark to black skin,' based on predictions from a tool called the HirisPlexS system. But the authors caution that these predictions come with some uncertainty given the limited genetic data from comparable ancient populations. Pottery vessel in which the Nuwayrat individual was discovered. Photograph Courtesy Garstang Museum, University of Liverpool Rock-cut tombs at Nuwayrat enclosing the pottery vessel containing the pottery coffin burial. Photograph Courtesy Garstang Museum, University of Liverpool To avoid speculation about features they could not definitively determine, Wilkinson says, she and her team rendered the reconstruction in grayscale, without hair or skin tone. She added that she expects the image to spark some controversy, as past depictions of other ancient Egyptians have. They are often criticized for appearing 'too European' or 'too African,' she says. But Wilkinson emphasizes that the face is just what one person in antiquity looked like. 'This individual is not representative of everybody from this period of time from this part of the world, any more than I am representative of everybody in Europe today.' For more insights into who this person was, and the life he led, scientists needed to look beyond his face. His worn teeth suggested he was between 44 and 64, though likely at the older end. His skeleton showed signs of age-related arthritis, worn joints and vertebrae, and muscle strain from frequent squatting and leaning, patterns consistent with physically demanding pottery work, says Joel Irish, a bioarchaeologist at Liverpool John Moores University and a co-author of the study. 'He was looking down a lot during his lifetime, like teenagers look at their cell phones today,' says Irish. The team concluded from these clues and by studying hieroglyphics of pottery workshops that the man was likely a potter as opposed to a baker, farmer, mason or soldier. Though they could not rule out weaver. The team speculated that if he were a potter, then perhaps there may be some link between his profession and why he was buried in the ceramic pot. But they also added that the practice wasn't unique to potters, this time period, or Nuwayrat. But what about pyramid builder? Was the Nuwayrat man hauling huge stones in Giza (more than a hundred miles away from where he was buried)? That's 'pure speculation' says Girdland-Flink. He also cautions against drawing conclusions about the people who constructed the pyramids based on this one ancient Egyptian genome." In terms of who built the pyramids,' Girdland-Flink says, 'you must have the actual workers' genomes.'
