{"id":154706,"date":"2023-01-06T16:24:20","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T22:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/researchers-inspect-gamma-ray-flares-of-the-blazar-3c-279"},"modified":"2023-01-06T16:24:20","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T22:24:20","slug":"researchers-inspect-gamma-ray-flares-of-the-blazar-3c-279","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/researchers-inspect-gamma-ray-flares-of-the-blazar-3c-279","title":{"rendered":"Researchers inspect gamma-ray flares of the blazar 3C 279"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/researchers-inspect-gamma-ray-flares-of-the-blazar-3c-2793.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Using NASA\u2019s Fermi spacecraft, Chinese astronomers have investigated the variability and spectral behavior of gamma-ray flares in a distant blazar known as 3C 279. Results of the study, presented in a paper published in the <i>Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific<\/i>, could help researchers better understand the flaring activity of blazars.<\/p>\n<p>Blazars are very compact quasars associated with <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/supermassive+black+holes\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">supermassive black holes<\/a> at the centers of active, giant elliptical galaxies. Based on their optical emission properties, astronomers divide blazars into two classes: <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/flat-spectrum+radio+quasars\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">flat-spectrum radio quasars<\/a> (FSRQs) that feature prominent and broad optical emission lines, and BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), which do not.<\/p>\n<p>At a distance of about 5 billion <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/light+years\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">light years<\/a>, 3C 279 is an FSRQ with an estimated black hole mass of 300\u2013800 million solar masses. It is a bright and powerful <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/gamma-ray\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">gamma-ray<\/a> source in the high\u2013<a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/energy\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">energy<\/a> sky and is known as the first blazar showing strong and rapid variability at GeV energies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using NASA\u2019s Fermi spacecraft, Chinese astronomers have investigated the variability and spectral behavior of gamma-ray flares in a distant blazar known as 3C 279. Results of the study, presented in a paper published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, could help researchers better understand the flaring activity of blazars. Blazars are [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}