New Picture of Quasar Emerges

This artist's conceptual drawing shows the core of a quasar known as Q0957+561. Observations indicate that the quasar contains a 4-billion solar-mass object that astronomers Rudy Schild (CfA), Darryl Leiter (Marwood Astrophysics Research Center) and Stan Robertson (Southwestern Oklahoma State Univ.) have dubbed a magnetospheric eternally collapsing object, or MECO for short. A rotating intrinsic magnetic field (shown in pale yellow) anchored to the MECO generates a magnetic propeller, sweeping out a large region (shown in black) of the inner accretion disk. The magnetic propeller also creates radial outflows of atomic nuclei (shown in indigo blue) and relativistic jets of electrons (shown in red) along the rotation axis. A bright blue-white ring forms where the MECO's rotating magnetic field sweeps the inner edge of the accretion disk, creating a hot, thin boundary layer that pushes matter outward against the intense inward pull of gravity. Outer gas clouds (shown in grey-green) gather together and flow into the accretion disk, heading for the highly redshifted, rotating MECO at the quasar's core. Credit: Christine Pulliam (CfA)