The night sky has always been essential for navigation, from the earliest sea voyages to today’s GPS systems. In addition to stars, the United States Navy also employs quasars as navigational markers. Quasars are incredibly distant galaxies that contain supermassive black holes, encircled by intensely hot swirling gas disks that can emit powerful jets of material. Building on the important discovery made in 2020, which identified newly formed jets in several quasars, Olivia Achenbach, a hopeful future naval officer from the United States Naval Academy, utilized NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to uncover some astonishing characteristics of the quasar known as J0742+2704.
The night sky has always been essential for navigation, from the earliest sea voyages to today’s GPS systems. In addition to stars, the United States Navy also employs quasars as navigational markers. Quasars are incredibly distant galaxies that contain supermassive black holes, encircled by intensely hot swirling gas disks that can emit powerful jets of material. Building on the important discovery made in 2020, which identified newly formed jets in several quasars, Olivia Achenbach, a hopeful future naval officer from the United States Naval Academy, utilized NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to uncover some astonishing characteristics of the quasar known as J0742+2704.
“The most unexpected finding was the clear spiral shape visible in the Hubble Space Telescope images. Initially, I thought I might have made a mistake,” expressed Achenbach, who made this discovery during her four-week internship.
“Usually, we view quasars as mature galaxies that have amassed significant mass, alongside their central black holes, following turbulent mergers, resulting in an elliptical form,” explained astronomer Kristina Nyland from the Naval Research Laboratory, who mentored Achenbach during her research.
“Discovering a quasar-hosting galaxy featuring spiral arms and a black hole over 400 million times the mass of the Sun—quite large—alongside young jets that went undetected two decades ago is exceedingly rare and thrilling,” Nyland remarked.
This unique quasar contributes to an ongoing debate among astronomers regarding what causes quasar jets, which play a crucial role in galaxies’ evolution by potentially hindering star formation. Some researchers believe that these jets result from significant galaxy mergers, as the materials from merging galaxies collide, channeling heated gas toward conjoined black holes. However, spiral galaxy quasars like J0742+2704 imply there might be different mechanisms for jet formation.
Although J0742+2704 preserves its spiral configuration, the Hubble images display fascinating evidence of its possible engagement with other galaxies. One of its arms exhibits distortions, possibly indicative of a tidal tail.
“Clearly, something intriguing is occurring. While this quasar hasn’t undergone a major disruptive merger, it might be interacting with another galaxy that is exerting a gravitational pull on its spiral arm,” said Nyland.
A nearby galaxy visible in the Hubble image (although its position requires verification through spectroscopy) appears to have a ring structure. This uncommon formation can arise from a galaxy interaction where a smaller galaxy penetrates a spiral galaxy’s center. “The ring galaxy adjacent to the quasar could provide a fascinating insight into this system’s dynamics. We might be observing the consequences of the interaction that sparked this young quasar jet,” added Nyland.
Both Achenbach and Nyland underscore that this captivating discovery represents merely a new beginning, with further multi-wavelength analyses of J0742+2704 planned using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. Achenbach also emphasizes the importance of continually observing the cosmos.
“If we had examined this galaxy 20 years ago, or perhaps even a decade ago, we would have encountered an ordinary quasar and remained unaware that it would one day house newly formed jets,” Achenbach noted. “This illustrates that if we persist in our observations, we can uncover something extraordinary that we never anticipated, leading us to entirely new avenues of discovery.”
