Quasar Accretion Disks 'Viewed' Using Polarizing Filter
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 - 15:56
in Astronomy & Space
For the first time, a team of international researchers has found a way to view the accretion disks surrounding black holes and verify that their true electromagnetic spectra match what astronomers have long predicted they would be. A black hole and its bright accretion disk have been thought to form a quasar, the powerful light source at the center of some distant galaxies. Using a polarizing filter, the research team, which included Robert Antonucci and Omer Blaes, professors of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, isolated the light emitted by the accretion disk from that produced by other matter in the vicinity of the black hole. Read More...
Read the whole article on Scientific Blogging
More from Scientific Blogging
Related
- Polarizing filter allows astronomers to see disks surrounding black holesWed, 23 Jul 2008, 14:28:31 EDT
- Accretion discs show their true colorsThu, 24 Jul 2008, 10:07:42 EDT
- Polarized sunglasses see black hole disksThu, 24 Jul 2008, 10:07:38 EDT
- University of Nevada, Reno researcher uses 100,000 degree heat to study plasmaWed, 2 Sep 2009, 16:07:50 EDT
- VLT and Rossi XTE satellite probe violently variable black holesWed, 15 Oct 2008, 12:14:48 EDT