The Milky Way could create a quasar that would stop stars forming and destroy all life in the galaxy

In the middle of the last century, scientists were able to detect very bright objects in our Universe. It was later discovered that this phenomenon is caused by the ultra-high activity of supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. It's called a quasar. A new study suggests that our galaxy, the Milky Way, could also produce a quasar, and there's nothing good about it.

Here's What We Know

Experts have previously suggested that quasars are formed when two galaxies collide. Scientists from the Universities of Hertfordshire and Sheffield conducted research and found evidence to support this hypothesis.

The astronomers used the Isaac Newton Telescope to study more than a hundred galaxies without quasars and another 48 galaxies with quasars. The aim of the work was to find distortions in the structures of galaxies that would indicate they have collided.

Scientists were able to find evidence of collisions in 65% of galaxies with quasars. By comparison, galaxies without quasars show evidence of collisions in less than 20% of cases, a third of the time.

Based on their work, the researchers hypothesised that a collision between two galaxies would produce a quasar with a huge probability. However, the probability is not 100 per cent. The team of scientists hope that future work with the James Webb Space Telescope will help them confirm the role of galactic collisions in the formation of quasars.

And to end with a bit of scaremongering. A collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda could also form a quasar. It would push all the gas and dust out of the galaxy, stop the process of star formation and destroy all life. But a collision with Andromeda isn't expected until five billion years from now.

Source: Oxford Academic