INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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.
