As the two galaxies in each quasar pair move closer together, so do their quasars. The four galaxies, each containing a central, bright quasar, are in the process of merging. This is actually a story that played out between two pairs of galaxies that existed long ago and far away. But the real universe is stranger than fiction. This tale of “death star” dueling quasars looming in the sky might seem like a scene out of a science fiction movie. Blistering radiation from the quasar pair might sterilize the surfaces of planets, wiping out innumerable extraterrestrial civilizations. The duo will be as deadly then as it is dazzling. The Milky Way and Andromeda have such black holes at their hearts, which are now sleeping giants. Quasars are ignited by monster black holes voraciously feeding on infalling matter, unleashing a torrent of radiation. These giant blazing light bulbs are a pair of quasars, brought to life by the collision of our Milky Way with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Two brilliant objects, each as bright as the full Moon or brighter, will drown out the stars with their radiance. Inhabitants of our Milky Way galaxy living several billion years from now will have a markedly different-looking sky overhead. Olmsted (STScI) Seeing Dual Quasars Is Like Finding a Needle in a Haystack Astronomers in a recent study deduced that the blinking light is a telltale sign of the presence of two quasars and not a single object. This simulation shows the brilliant, flickering light from a pair of quasars.
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