The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has spotted rare “double quasars” in the distant universe, implying a catastrophic galactic collision in ancient times. Peering back 10 billion years into the universe’s history, astronomers found a pair of quasars that appear to be a single object. But with the crisp view provided by the HST, the pair can be resolved as two quasars very close to each other, according to a statement. The research team believes the double quasars reside in the cores of two merging galaxies. Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. The black holes actively devour nearby materials, and this strong accretion process unleashes a tremendous amount of energy in the form of radiation, easily outshining the entire host galaxy. “We estimate that in the distant universe, for every 1,000 quasars, there is one double quasar. So finding these double quasars is like finding …
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