Astrophysicists wear 3-D glasses to watch quasars
Friday, March 13, 2020 - 09:30
in Astronomy & Space
A team of researchers from Russia and Greece reports a way to determine the origins and nature of quasar light by its polarization. The new approach is analogous to the way cinema glasses produce a 3-D image by feeding each eye with the light of a particular polarization, either horizontal or vertical. The authors of the recent study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society managed to distinguish between the light coming from different parts of quasars—their disks and jets—by discerning its distinct polarizations.