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Active Galaxies — a short series
This is a small article series containing about 120~ to a maximum 300 words(the intro note and footnotes don't count), I tried my best to minimize it, making it a go-to digestible lunch break for all! To explore the universe with you all, I'm using the referenced book: "Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide by Sir Martin Rees". Check it out for free on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/universe-the-definitive-visual-guide-from-dk/page/320/mode/2up. It is much more detailed than mine for any curious folks! If interested in interacting with this topic, feel free to dm! :)
Note: Please be free to comment on any mistakes in grammar(Although English is my first language, I struggled with grammar in general growing up, my apologies) or mistaken information/misleading info! It will be a great help.
Introduction
The galaxies that rotate around, making dust follow, shine brighter than others in the sky, due to a blast of radiation. But those galaxies don't shine on their own. But because of a mysterious supermassive black hole in its center. These are called active galaxies. The black hole pulls gas and dust around, creating a spinning accretion disk, which heats the gas to produce enormous radiation, like in the image below. This spinning disk's radiation can be seen across the universe, glowing as bright as ever, sometimes outshining the rest of the galaxy. Some dust or gas is caught, firing at its poles as jets(the yellow fuzz on the image below) emitting strong radio wavelength radiation and sometimes other types of radiation. There are some unique types of active galaxies that we will explore.
Radio Galaxy
The first type we will be explaining emits an intense source of radio waves, the "Radio galaxy". The example below is NGC 383. The center is hidden by the dust ring.
Seyfert Galaxy
Next is a less intense galaxy, the Seyfert galaxies, whose bright centers are in our view. The example below is the M106.
Quasar
The next galaxy is a Quasar, very similar to the Seyfert galaxy but more energetic. Because of that, it is often visible across a far distance. We know that the galaxy is far because of the redshifted lines on the spectra of a Quasar. The example below is a 0052+251. The image looks like a star when viewed from Earth. However, their brightness changes over time, called variability. Which makes them different from stars.
Blazar
The next galaxy is Blazars. Also very similar to a quasar in terms of its starlike appearance. Their spectra have no important lines, making them hard to study. This special type of active galaxy almost looks as if it's looking at Earth.
That will be it for today. The next article will be posted in 24-48 hours. The next article will be based on a poll(new topic or same topic). The link is under. If no votes, which is highly possible, it will be picked 50-50 randomly. I was planning for this to be 120~ words, but I've overdone it.
Poll: https://take.supersurvey.com/poll5567084x445343a3-164
Image sources:
https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2012/10/16/alexes-est-blog-brightest/
https://archive.org/details/universe-the-definitive-visual-guide-from-dk/page/320/mode/2up
Audio source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlaTeXX3uH8&list=RDOlaTeXX3uH8&start_radio=1&ab_channel=BrianEnoVEVO
Comments
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nick
man i love your blog and the effort youve put not only into the content, but in curating the atmosphere you deliver it in <##
this is all super interesting, thanks :-)
Thank you so much, that really means a lot! I’m glad you found it interesting :)
by Wcuriouss; ; Report
Wcuriouss
I'm disappointed at the lack of information when explaining some types of active galaxies here :(
I will keep in mind to add flesh in the upcoming articles.
I just realized it doesn’t work for mobile
by Wcuriouss; ; Report