Quasar NRAO 530 Photographed

A group of astronomers led by Svetlana Jorstad made a remarkable observation. By making use of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), known as a network of telescopes from all over the world, he was able to image a quasar called NRAO 530, which is approximately 7.5 billion light years away from Earth.

Quasars, in their simplest terms, are the nuclei of galaxies. Quasars, which sometimes reach weights equivalent to billions of solar masses, are also supported by black holes. Although they do not shed light around them, they appear quite bright due to the heating of the materials they attract towards them. For this reason, “the brightest objects in the universe” are some of these quasars. Here is one of those objects, which is currently on record.

Here is an image of NRAO 530 provided by telescopes:

As you can imagine, it is not easy to view an object 7.5 billion light years away. However, scientists pushed all the limits to receive data from telescopes within the scope of the EHT project and achieved their ultimate goal. In addition to obtaining images, the experts were able to map the magnetic fields of NRAO 530.

What is a quasar?

As you know, black holes are objects with such a dense mass that even light cannot escape. As the matter approaches the event horizon of the black hole, it heats up and begins to emit light. In addition, their speed increases beyond the reach of any object on Earth. These ultra-bright structures around black holes are called quasars. Much, much brighter than a star, these structures also make it possible to detect black holes at one point.