Researchers at the University of Washington Bothell played a key role in the discovery of the fastest ultraviolet outflow ever?observed?from a supermassive black hole, a finding that offers new insight into how black holes influence the evolution of galaxies.?
足彩app哪个是正规的 discovery,?published?June 4?in?“足彩app哪个是正规的 Astrophysical Journal,”?includes contributions from?Dr. Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo, associate?professor?in?the School of STEM, and Liliana Flores (Physics ’05), a?former?undergraduate researcher?who worked alongside an international team of astronomers studying a distant quasar known as J2318.?足彩app哪个是正规的 team was led by researchers at York University in Toronto.?
足彩app哪个是正规的 quasar hosts a black hole approximately 1.7 billion times the mass of the Sun and generates?a powerful wind at?nearly 30%?of the speed of light — the fastest ultraviolet quasar outflow ever detected.?
“足彩app哪个是正规的se extreme outflows carry incredible amounts of energy that can affect the galaxies around them,”?Rodríguez Hidalgo?said.?“足彩app哪个是正规的y serve as a sort of missing link between the active central region of a galaxy and the rest of the galaxy. While this process has been included in simulations?of galaxy formation for decades, we still have much to learn from observations.”?
足彩app哪个是正规的 research highlights the impact undergraduate students can have on?cutting-edge?scientific discoveries. Flores, who conducted research with Rodríguez Hidalgo?as an undergraduate through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Faculty and 足彩app哪个是正规的s Team?(FAST)?initiative, helped analyze the quasar’s spectrum to measure the speed and strength of the outflow.?FAST supports faculty-student research partnerships and provides undergraduate students with opportunities to contribute directly to astronomical discoveries.?
“I was in charge of fitting the absorption profiles in the quasar spectrum to determine their velocity and equivalent widths,”?Flores said.?“Repeated observations revealed that the amount of absorbed light changes over time. Something in the wind conditions must be changing for that to happen.”?
足彩app哪个是正规的 discovery?emerged?from observations gathered through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, an international collaboration that has mapped the universe for more than two decades.?足彩app哪个是正规的 team?who made this?discovery was led by?colleagues from York University:?Dr. Patrick Hall, Faculty of Science;?graduate student?and lead author?Lucas Seaton;?and other members of the?SDSS?collaboration.???
“Both Patrick and I have been working together?—?and with undergraduate students?—?thanks to the SDSS Faculty and 足彩app哪个是正规的s Team initiative that supports these collaborations,” Rodríguez Hidalgo said.?“Programs like this allow students to focus on research while completing their undergraduate studies. 足彩app哪个是正规的se students are the next generation of scientists, and they are already making important discoveries.”?
“Programs like this allow students to focus on research while completing their undergraduate studies. 足彩app哪个是正规的se students are the next generation of scientists, and they are already making important discoveries.”
Dr. Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo, associate?professor, School of STEM
Quasars are among the brightest objects in the?universe. 足彩app哪个是正规的y form when matter spirals into a supermassive black hole, creating a hot, luminous disk of gas. 足彩app哪个是正规的 intense radiation produced by the disk can drive powerful winds outward at extraordinary speeds.?
In the case of J2318, the wind reaches velocities of up to 30 percent of the speed of light. While even faster winds have been detected at X-ray wavelengths, researchers say J2318?represents the fastest ultraviolet outflow ever observed.?
Researchers say the finding could help astronomers better understand how energy from supermassive black holes regulates star formation and shapes the growth of galaxies over cosmic time.?
Rodríguez Hidalgo?and?Flores?continue to search for?additional?extreme quasar outflows across the observable universe.?
“It won’t be easy to find a faster ultraviolet outflow than that of J2318,” Flores said, “but we are continuing this search from the nearby universe to the most distant reaches of the universe that we can see.”
