Hubble Captures Unprecedented Details of Quasar 3C 273

NASA's Hubble Telescope reveals intricate structures and dynamic interactions around the first discovered quasar, 2.5 billion light-years away.

Astronomers used Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) coronagraph to block the quasar's intense glare and observe structures near its supermassive black hole.
New observations uncovered unusual features within 16,000 light-years of the black hole, including blobs of varying sizes and a mysterious L-shaped filamentary structure, possibly linked to smaller satellite galaxies being drawn in by the black hole's gravity.
The quasar's extragalactic jet, spanning 300,000 light-years, was studied in unprecedented detail, with data revealing that the jet's speed increases as it moves farther from the black hole.
The findings provide insights into how galactic collisions and interactions fuel quasars, with debris spiraling into the central black hole and powering its immense energy output.
Future studies with the James Webb Space Telescope are expected to build on these discoveries, offering further understanding of quasar morphology and galactic dynamics.