Blazars (AGN Galaxy)

Kyle Holtry
PHYS-1040-006-806-F16-West
12/01/2016

A Blazar is a form of AGN galaxy (Active Galactic Nuclei). Originally astronomers

believed Blazars to be variable stars, but the strange thing is that they didnt change in brightness
in any predictable way (Cain). Not until the 1970s did astronomers realize that these immensely
bright stars were not even stars at all. They werent even in our galaxy like astronomers first
believed. Blazars are on average millions of light years away. Even though they are so far away
from earth, Blazars still outshine almost every star in the sky easily (Cain). Blazars can emit a
wide range of energy, but one of the common light rays they emit is high-energy gamma rays
which are billions of times lighter than the human eye can see (KIPAC). The light emitted from a
Blazar can be observed to be traveling above the speed of light, but this is only an illusion
because the light never passes the threshold of light (KIPAC).
What is a Blazar? Blazars are considered to be a very compact Quasar, usually
exponentially smaller. Blazars are powered by extremely huge super massive black holes located
in the center of the galaxy (Cain). Now almost every galaxy we can observe is believed to have a
black hole in the center powering the galaxy, so what makes a Blazar different? The black hole
that is located in the center of a Blazar galaxy can be known to be over a hundred million times
heavier than our sun. A Blazar is the core of a very active galaxy that is oriented facing the earth,
so a relativistic jet blasting out of the galaxy is oriented directly towards the Earth (Cain).
There is so much particles and matter that is trying to get into the black hole that it backs up and
creates an accretion disk. The pressure and temperature around this accretion disk is extremely
high and heats up the surrounding matter to over millions of degrees Fahrenheit causing the
matter to shine bright like a star and emit huge amounts of radiation. (Cain) The supermassive
black hole spins on its axis at such speeds that it starts to create a massive magnetic field that
whips up the material into jets that blast above and below the black hole. (Cain). The material

that is caught up in the whips being ejected from the black hole are accelerated at nearly the
speed of light and can travel thousands of light years creating brilliant funnels of light coming
out of the top and bottom of the black hole. In other words, when we look at Blazars we are
looking at a galaxy which is feeding on the matter around it face on, so we can see the energy
emitted from both the black hole and jets.
Blazars and AGN galaxies still perplex astronomers around the world. The original
Blazar was discovered because a connection between a variable star and radio waves being
emitted, the first signs showed that this was going to be another quasar being discovered, but the
difference was that there were no spectral lines with evident redshift being shown, dubbing this
the first discovered Blazar. Blazars continue to be one of the rarest AGN galaxies, with only
about 2,700 known in the Universe in 2011 (Phsy.org). Today we have discovered many more,
but they continue to be very rare. One of the most common questions is how can something so
far away still be seen on earth? One Blazar that was discovered was over 9 billion light years
away and it was discovered by an earth based instrument, that is how bright a Blazar can get
(Cain).
Astronomers have discovered a new way to find new Blazars in the Universe. NASAs
Wide Infrared Survey Explorer or more commonly known as WISE has completed a survey of
the sky using different colors of infrared imaging to see new anomalies that could be detected
(Phsy.org). The most common way we discover a galaxy is that the infrared radiation is located
from dust particles that are superheated by star formation located near the center of galaxies by
their blackholes. Using WISE astronomers have compared knowledge of known Blazars and
compared them to the infrared scans done by WISE (Phsy.org). The ejected beams released by
Blazars radiate a completely different color of infrared than dust emission from normal galaxies

(Phsy.org). Astronomers find a huge amount of gamma ray radiation that is mysterious because
the radiation is so wide spread that astronomers cant pinpoint exactly where the gamma rays are
coming from. Then the astronomers use the data collected from WISE locating a position of huge
amounts of infrared radiation located within the widespread radiation of gamma rays in the sky
with the distinct color of a Blazar and can conclude that a Blazar is located in that area
(Phys.org). With this new way of locating Blazars, scientists expect to locate many more.
Another newly developed telescope is now also on the search for new Blazars called the FermiLarge Angle Telescope or Fermi-LAT for short (KIPAC). This new telescope is believed to be
able to locate new Blazars and new information on Blazars to help astronomers understand the
physics that power a Blazar (KIPAC).

Sources:
"Blazars." Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and Technology. Harvard-Smithsonian
Center For Astrophysics, 06 Sept. 2011. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. (Phsy.org)

"Blazars and Active Galactic Nuclei." Blazars and Active Galactic Nuclei | Kavli Institute for
Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. Kavli Institute For Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology,
n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. (KIPAC)

Cain, Fraser. "Blazars." Universe Today. N.p., 24 Dec. 2015. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.