Another step forward in understanding the galaxies

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

The discovery described in this paper has important consequences 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 about 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 galaxy nuclei becomes much simpler than previously thought."