Clues Emerge in Mystery of Flickering Quasars

Scientific American -------- Some of the brightest objects in the Universe—quasars—are vanishing rapidly. Astronomers now think that they understand this mysterious behaviour, and the answer could help them to explain how galaxies such as the Milky Way evolve. Quasars are supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies fed by huge quantities of gas that shine across the visible Universe. Astronomers have long thought that quasars persist for millions of years before dimming slowly over tens of thousands of years. But in 2014, Stephanie LaMassa, an astronomer now at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, discovered a quasar that seemed to disappear in less than ten years. That’s a blink of an eye, astronomically speaking. To learn more click on the picture below to read the article.