This whirling image includes a brilliant spiral galaxy called MCG-01-24-014, which lies about 275 million light-years from Earth. In addition to being a distinct spiral nebula, MCG-01-24-014 has an incredibly energetic core called an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and is classified as a Type-2 Seyfert galaxy. Seyfert galaxies, together with quasars, host among the most typical subclasses of AGN. While the accurate classification of AGNs is nuanced, Seyfert galaxies tend to be reasonably close-by and their main AGN does not beat its host, while quasars are really remote AGNs with unbelievable luminosities that beat their host galaxies.
There are even more subclasses of both Seyfert galaxies and quasars. When it comes to Seyfert galaxies, the primary subcategories are Type-1 and Type-2. Astronomers identify them by their spectra, the pattern that results when light is divided into its constituent wavelengths. The spectral lines that Type-2 Seyfert galaxies give off are related to particular ‘prohibited’ emission lines. To comprehend why discharged light from a galaxy might be prohibited, it assists to comprehend why spectra exist in the very first location. Spectra look the method they do since particular atoms and particles take in and give off light at extremely particular wavelengths. The factor for this is quantum physics: electrons (the small particles that orbit the nuclei of atoms and particles) can just exist at extremely particular energies, and for that reason electrons can just lose or get really particular quantities of energy. These extremely particular quantities of energy represent the wavelengths of light that are taken in or released.
Forbidden emission lines must not exist according to specific guidelines of quantum physics. Quantum physics is intricate, and some of the guidelines utilized to forecast it were developed under lab conditions here on Earth. Under those guidelines, this emission is ‘prohibited’– so unlikely that it’s overlooked. In area, in the middle of an exceptionally energetic stellar core, those presumptions do not hold any longer, and the ‘prohibited’ light gets a possibility to shine out towards us.
Text credit: European Space Agency
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