Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
scitechdaily.com/quasar-powered-galaxy-attack-revealed-in-stunning-detail
This video zooms into a galactic merging event in deep space, like a ‘cosmic joust’. One of these galaxies is piercing the other with intense radiation, emitted by a quasar at its core. This radiation is disrupting the gas and dust inside the other galaxy, dampening its ability to form stars.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers resolved these two galaxies despite how close they are to each other in the sky. Using the X-shooter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they examined how radiation affected the material inside the galaxy being bombarded by a quasar.
The various images shown here were blended together to create this zoom. They come from different telescopes, observing at different times, ending with a close-up of the galaxies as seen by ALMA. At the very end, we see an artist’s illustration depicting how the beam of radiation affects the companion galaxy.
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)/Digitized Sky Survey 2/DESI Legacy Survey/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Balashev and P. Noterdaeme et al. Music: Azul Cobalto
scitechdaily.com/quasar-powered-galaxy-attack-revealed-in-stunning-detail
This video zooms into a galactic merging event in deep space, like a ‘cosmic joust’. One of these galaxies is piercing the other with intense radiation, emitted by a quasar at its core. This radiation is disrupting the gas and dust inside the other galaxy, dampening its ability to form stars.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers resolved these two galaxies despite how close they are to each other in the sky. Using the X-shooter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they examined how radiation affected the material inside the galaxy being bombarded by a quasar.
The various images shown here were blended together to create this zoom. They come from different telescopes, observing at different times, ending with a close-up of the galaxies as seen by ALMA. At the very end, we see an artist’s illustration depicting how the beam of radiation affects the companion galaxy.
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)/Digitized Sky Survey 2/DESI Legacy Survey/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Balashev and P. Noterdaeme et al. Music: Azul Cobalto
