HE0450-2958

HE0450-2958 is an unusual quasar. It is referred to as the Quasar without a Home because no evidence of a massive host galaxy is found. It is estimated to lie 3,000,000,000 light-years away, and have a mass of 400,000,000 Suns.

The researchers announced their findings September 14 2005. The quasar is neighbouring a gas cloud 2,500 light-years across, christened the blob. This cloud may be feeding the supermassive black hole. In order for the survey to have missed the galaxy, it must be 6 magnitudes dimmer than detectable or have a radius of 300 light-years or less (typical quasars are embedded in galaxies 5000 to 50,000 light-years across). It might be a dark galaxy that was turned into a quasar. It lies 50,000 light-years from a disrupted galaxy undergoing starburst.

A theory has been proposed that the black hole is actually an ejected central black hole of one of two merging galaxies, that merged 100,000 years before into the disrupted galaxy. One of the two merging galaxies previously experienced a merger and had two central black holes. With the addition of a third, the lightest was ejected, dragging along the blob of gas that created the quasar. The quasar appears to be speeding away from the starburst galaxy at 300 km/s.

See also

• Dark galaxy
• quasar

References

• MERRITT D.; STORCHI-BERGMANN T.; ROBINSON A.; BATCHELDOR D.; AXON D.; CID FERNANDES R. (2006). "The nature of the HE0450-2958 system.". Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 367 1746-1750.
• PAPADOPOULOS P.P.; FEAIN I.J.; WAGG J.; WILNER D.J. (2008). "A new twist to an old story: HE 0450-2958 and the ULIRG --> optically bright QSO transition hypothesis.". The Astrophysical Journal 684 845-852.
• ZHOU X.-L.; YANG F.; LU X.-R.; WANG J.-M. (2007). "X-ray properties of the quasar HE 0450-2958.". The Astrophysical Journal 133 432-438.
• KIM M.; HO L.C.; PENG C.Y.; IM M. (2007). "The host galaxy of the quasar HE 0450-2958.". The Astrophysical Journal 658 107-113.
• FEAIN I.J.; PAPADOPOULOS P.P.; EKERS R.D.; MIDDELBERG E. (2007). "Dressing a naked quasar: star formation and active galactic nucleus feedback in HE 0450-2958.". The Astrophysical Journal 662 872-877.
• LETAWE G.; MAGAIN P.; COURBIN F. (2008). "Slit and integral-field optical spectroscopy of the enigmatic quasar HE 0450-2958.". The Astrophysical Journal 480 69-77.

External links

• Black Hole in Search of a Home (ESO)
• Crashing galaxies may have spit out monster black hole
• Image HE0450-2958