🔭 Chinese astronomers just cracked open a cosmic treasure chest! Over 1,300 new quasars—supermassive black hole-powered cosmic beacons—have been found lurking behind the Milky Way’s dusty Galactic plane. The discovery, made using China’s game-changing LAMOST telescope, could rewrite what we know about our galaxy and beyond.
Why This Matters
Quasars act like intergalactic GPS for scientists studying space’s biggest mysteries: from how galaxies form to the universe’s grand structure. 🌠 But spotting them behind our Milky Way’s crowded star fields and cosmic dust has been like trying to see fireflies through fog—until now.
LAMOST to the Rescue
The team, including researchers from Peking University and international collaborators, used LAMOST’s next-gen spectroscopy to pierce through the Galactic plane’s haze. Out of 1,982 quasars spotted, 1,338 were brand-new to science—like finding hidden constellations!
What’s Next?
These quasars aren’t just pretty lights. They’re key to:
🔭 Mapping the Milky Way’s invisible gases
📡 Building better cosmic reference frames
⚫ Studying supermassive black hole behavior
As study leader Prof. Wu Xuebing puts it: ‘It’s like discovering a secret portal to the universe’s backstage.’ 🎭✨
