Spooky alignment of quasars across billions of light-years

[Sagan]

Spooky alignment of quasars across billions of light-years

November 19, 2014
Source:

European Southern Observatory - ESO



This artist's impression shows schematically the mysterious alignments between the spin axes of quasars and the large-scale structures that
they inhabit that observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope have revealed. These alignments are over billions of light-years and are the
largest known in the universe. The large-scale structure is shown in blue and quasars are marked in white with the rotation axes of their
black holes indicated with a line. This picture is for illustration only and does not depict the real distribution of galaxies and quasars.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

New observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have revealed alignments over the largest structures ever discovered in the Universe. A European research team has found that the rotation axes of the central supermassive black holes in a sample of quasars are parallel to each other over distances of billions of light-years. The team has also found that the rotation axes of these quasars tend to be aligned with the vast structures in the cosmic web in which they reside.

Quasars are galaxies with very active supermassive black holes at their centres. These black holes are surrounded by spinning discs of extremely hot material that is often spewed out in long jets along their axes of rotation. Quasars can shine more brightly than all the stars in the rest of their host galaxies put together.

A team led by Damien Hutsemékers from the University of Liège in Belgium used the FORS instrument on the VLT to study 93 quasars that were known to form huge groupings spread over billions of light-years, seen at a time when the Universe was about one third of its current age.

"The first odd thing we noticed was that some of the quasars' rotation axes were aligned with each other -- despite the fact that these quasars are separated by billions of light-years," said Hutsemékers. The team then went further and looked to see if the rotation axes were linked, not just to each other, but also to the structure of the Universe on large scales at that time.

More:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...cienceDaily%29

[Chantellabella]

Spooky alignment of quasars across billions of light-years

November 19, 2014
Source:

European Southern Observatory - ESO



This artist's impression shows schematically the mysterious alignments between the spin axes of quasars and the large-scale structures that
they inhabit that observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope have revealed. These alignments are over billions of light-years and are the
largest known in the universe. The large-scale structure is shown in blue and quasars are marked in white with the rotation axes of their
black holes indicated with a line. This picture is for illustration only and does not depict the real distribution of galaxies and quasars.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

New observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have revealed alignments over the largest structures ever discovered in the Universe. A European research team has found that the rotation axes of the central supermassive black holes in a sample of quasars are parallel to each other over distances of billions of light-years. The team has also found that the rotation axes of these quasars tend to be aligned with the vast structures in the cosmic web in which they reside.

Quasars are galaxies with very active supermassive black holes at their centres. These black holes are surrounded by spinning discs of extremely hot material that is often spewed out in long jets along their axes of rotation. Quasars can shine more brightly than all the stars in the rest of their host galaxies put together.

A team led by Damien Hutsemékers from the University of Liège in Belgium used the FORS instrument on the VLT to study 93 quasars that were known to form huge groupings spread over billions of light-years, seen at a time when the Universe was about one third of its current age.

"The first odd thing we noticed was that some of the quasars' rotation axes were aligned with each other -- despite the fact that these quasars are separated by billions of light-years," said Hutsemékers. The team then went further and looked to see if the rotation axes were linked, not just to each other, but also to the structure of the Universe on large scales at that time.

More:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...cienceDaily%29

That's it! Proof that our universe is a cage and giant slime aliens are keeping us all captive in a 10 year old's room.

Or..............it could be a photograph of God. God might look like a giant spider.

Or..........it could be that all the galaxies are "being-powered" and they are all lining up in army formation to take over this puny galaxy.

Or.............it could be a connect-the-dot page that the scientist intern left on the lab table.

I think it looks like a giant freeway. Maybe all the galaxies have interstellar state highways.


Hey! It could happen.