NASAs Quasar Black Hole Notebook

A growing black hole, called a quasar, can be seen at the centre of a faraway galaxy in this artist's concept. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes discovered swarms of similar quasars hiding in dusty galaxies in the distant universe. The quasar is the orange object at the centre of the large, irregular-shaped galaxy. It feeds a central super massive black hole. As the black hole feeds, the gas and dust heat up and spray out X-rays, as illustrated by the white rays.