ray clues from blazars shed light on how active galaxies are powered

New X-ray clues from blazars shed light | how active galaxies are powered

Astronomers studying some of the Universe’s most energetic objects, known as blazars, have found new clues about the sources of their X-ray emissions, which could improve understanding of the extreme physical conditions around supermassive black holes and how active galaxies are powered.

Researchers from the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), studied four classical TeV blazars — Mrk 421, Mrk 501, PG 1553+113 and PKS 2155-304.

Using observations from NASA’s NICER and NuSTAR space telescopes, researchers Riya Bhowmick and Alok C. Gupta analysed the X-ray emissions from the objects to investigate the mechanisms behind their energetic activity.