Another step forward in understanding galaxies

Researchers Polychronis Papaderos and Jean Michel Gomes, from the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAUP), recently published in the journal "Astronomy & Astrophysics" the results of a study that was supported by FCT at various levels.

The discovery described in this article has important consequences for understanding the active nucleus of galaxies, one of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. The results indicate that the interstellar medium of some galaxies is so porous that up to 90% of the radiation produced by the stars is not absorbed.

As Polychronis Papaderos explains, the results of this project "provide the solution to a 30-year-old puzzle and a new conceptual model with which the family of active galaxy nuclei becomes much simpler than previously thought".