A group of astronomers has discovered over 1,300 new quasars behind the Galactic plane using China's Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST).
Scientists say the findings shed new light on several hot topics in cosmic research.Quasars are the remarkably bright cores of active galaxies in the distant universe.
Astronomers have been working to discover more quasars to study cosmic phenomena such as the large-scale structure of the universe, supermassive black holes, cosmic reionization, and the formation and evolution of galaxies.Astronomers from China's National Astronomical Observatories, Peking University, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University and the Netherlands' Leiden University used LAMOST to carry out spectroscopic surveys, identifying 1,982 quasars, 1,338 of which are newly discovered.
The results were published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.The Galactic plane is a region within the Milky Way Galaxy where stars, gas and dust are highly concentrated, forming a vast disk stretching across the galaxy.
Most large-scale quasar surveys focus on high Galactic latitudes in the northern and southern skies and usually do not cover the Galactic plane.According to Wu Xuebing, the study's leader and a professor in the Department of Astronomy at Peking University, the high dust extinction and dense star distribution in the Galactic plane have made searching for quasars behind it very difficult.This discovery highlights the potential of spectroscopic surveys in the search for quasars behind the Galactic plane, Wu added.Quasars behind the Galactic plane are excellent tracers for probing the chemistry and kinematics of the interstellar and intergalactic medium in the Milky Way, said Huo Zhiying, the first author of the paper, from the National Astronomical Observatories.Additionally, these quasars will help fill the gap in the spatial distribution of known quasars near the Galactic plane and can be used to construct an astrometric reference frame, Huo added.