Another step forward in understanding galaxies

Researchers Polychronis Papaderos and Jean Michel Gomes, from the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAUP), recently published the results of a study in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, which received support from FCT at various levels.

The discovery described in this article has important implications for understanding the active core 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 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 galactic nuclei becomes much simpler than we previously thought."