A space phenomenon known as a “Blazar” over 900 million light years away that appears to be ejecting a massive stream of plasma toward Earth has scientists scrambling to explain it.
Astronomers and cosmologists typically classify blazars based on the electromagnetic properties of their plasma jets. However, the researchers behind this latest discovery say that BL Lacertae in the Lizard constellation “escapes current classification.”
Unclassified Blazar Joins Growing List of Cosmic Conundrums
Astronomers who first spotted BL Lacertae in 1929 thought it was a variable star. Later work showed it was likely 900 million light years away, meaning it was too bright to be a star. This “cosmic chameleon” joins a growing list of astronomical mysteries discovered by humanity’s increasingly complex astronomical observatories.
MIT researchers recently reported the discovery x-ray pulses “unlike anything we’ve ever seen” originating from a supermassive black hole, while Australian researchers detected a radio signal from deep space that “defies understanding.” South African researchers have also spotted a “mysterious yet massive object” in the space between neutron stars and black holes they are still struggling to classify.
Closer to home, Brown University scientists partnered with SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) researchers to try to explain a mysterious object at the edge of the solar system nicknamed “Snowman,” while another team says that a mysterious object recently spotted by the Subaru telescope could point to “complex structure” at the edge of the solar system. Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope and Hawaii’s Keck Observatory also say they‘ve spotted an unusual object in the solar system’s Kuiper Belt that might help solve the mysterious three-body problem.
Recent astronomical breakthroughs have also solved several previously unexplained cosmic mysteries. For example, researchers using the Australian Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope discovered that the unusual readings they were receiving were not from a distant civilization but were instead likely local television signals bouncing off of airplanes. A 47-year-old mystery known as the “Wow” signal was also found to have a cosmic explanation instead of a signal from another civilization. Earlier this month, scientists announced they finally found the source of strange, long-period radio pulses coming from deep space.
Many astronomical mysteries remain unexplained, including strange emissions in space, the Hubble Constant, and even an “intergalactic mystery” of how galaxies were formed. Suffice it to say, “blazars” have become another curiosity in the growing list of unknown space phenomena.
Interesting EM Features Compel Researchers to Look Closer
According to the research team trying to unravel the mysterious blazar, jets of ionized matter ejected from near the poles of black holes can cover huge galactic distances, with some observed phenomena exceeding a million light years. When those jets are aimed at Earth, they are called blazars.
“Blazars are interesting for many reasons, not least because the orientation of the jets and the enormous velocities of their particles, close to the speed of light, lead to a variety of effects described by the theory of relativity,” explained team leader, Dr. Alicja Wierzcholska from The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN).
Wierzcholska says that these emissions can be observed at various wavelengths, ranging from simple radio waves all the way up to high-energy gamma rays. For BL Lacertae, those emissions had produced some “interesting features” in previous years that denied traditional blazar classification, compelling the research team to examine it closer.
Initially, the team scanned their targeted blazar with the American Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory satellite in the “hard” X-ray range. That data was complemented by readings from the NuSTAR space telescope, which also scanned the blazar for emissions in the optical and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. According to the researchers, “This is because the electromagnetic radiation produced by blazars extends from the radio range through the optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray regions to gamma radiation of the highest energies.”
After comparing the two readings, the researchers were stumped. Their targeted blazar had the X-ray signal of a high energy type, then would somehow switch to a low energy type during other observational periods. Wierzcholska says the switch equally stumped them since these changes occurred very quickly.
GJ-11
“This is unusual behaviour, the physical basis of which we are not yet able to explain,” the researcher explained.
Further complicating the mystery, the X-ray activity from BL Lacertae turned out to be a record in the history of such observations. The research team believes these unusual features appear to put this blazar in a class of its own.
“Many a Sleepless Night” Ahead for Astrophysicist-Theorists
More work is still needed to explain the mysterious blazar completely. Still, according to the research team, it would be necessary to go beyond current proposals involving different properties of particles in the jets of blazars, such as protons.
“In order to explain the behaviour of the BL Lacertae blazar, it would be necessary to point to something more: not only the physical processes responsible for the formation of the two peaks (in the readings) but, above all, the mechanism responsible for their rapid switching,” they write.
“One could venture to say that before this happens, many an astrophysicist-theorist will spend many a sleepless night,” they add.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him onX,learn about his books atplainfiction.com, or email him directly atchristopher@thedebrief.org.