Watch: NASA's Fermi telescope spots record-setting flare from black hole

Black-hole-powered galaxies called blazars are the most common sources detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Credits: M. Weiss/CfA

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on Tuesday spotted a record flare from black hole in distant galaxy.

The gamma rays were captured coming from a galaxy known as PKS 1441+25, a type of active galaxy called a blazar. The galaxy is black-hole-powered and more than halfway across the universe.

PKS 1441+25 is a famous blazar, a galaxy whose high-energy activity is powered by a central supermassive black hole weighing up to 70 million times the Sun's mass. What makes a blazar so bright is that one of these particle jets happens to be aimed almost straight at us.

Further explaining about the process, NASA tweeted on its official Twitter handle:

What’s a blazar? It’s a black-hole-powered galaxy and can be detected by our Fermi Telescope https://t.co/aeNLgiLr60 pic.twitter.com/x90st5ommt

— NASA (@NASA) December 16, 2015

According to NASA, PKS 1441+25 is one of only two such distant sources for which gamma rays with energies above 100 GeV have been observed. Its dramatic flare provides a powerful glimpse into the intensity of the EBL from near-infrared to near-ultraviolet wavelengths and suggests that galaxy surveys have identified most of the sources responsible for it.

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