LIGHTHOUSE OF THE COSMOS

Quasars blaze radiation that can be seen from the other side of space

1 The ‘calm’ black hole

If a black hole is calmly sitting at the centre of its galaxy, it generally distorts the fabric of the universe around it. It leaves a dent in this sheet of space-time from which nothing – not even light – can escape.

2 A swirling disc of dust and gas

An accretion disc made of gas and dust circles the black hole. If the black hole isn’t particularly active, then the matter won’t fall into it.

3 Heating up

When the material falls into the black hole and reaches the event horizon – the point of no return – a lot of friction is created, superheating atoms and tearing them apart.

4 The active black hole

When a black hole begins spinning into motion, it drags the fabric of space-time, or the universe, with it. This sheet gets twisted up inside the black hole.

5 An active galaxy

Combine the intense magnetic field of the black hole with the ripping of atoms and super-high temperatures and you get an extremely active galaxy. Electrons torn from the atoms find themselves gathered by the magnetic field.

6 Galactic jets

Funnels made by the black hole twisting the fabric of spacetime suck up particles. These are accelerated by electric currents before being blasted out into space as focused beams of charged particles and radiation.