BL Lacertae: Observations from 11 global telescopes lead to detection of the brightest flare of a century-old blazar

Source: The post is based on the article “Observations from 11 global telescopes lead to detection of the brightest flare of a century-old blazar” published in PIB on 18th May 2023

What is the News?

The brightness of BL Lacertae (BL Lac), a blazar discovered almost a century ago has been found to have reached its maxima.

What is BL Lacertae (BL Lac)?

BL Lacertae object or BL Lac object is a type of active galactic nucleus(AGN).

It is located about 950 million light years from the Earth.

Note: Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are located in the core of the galaxy. They are compact structures showing anomalous luminosity from time to time. 

– The deviation in their brightness levels can vary and last either for a few hours, days, weeks or even months. 

– This luminosity variance, when seen with the naked human eye, is nothing but electromagnetic emissions that are visible across the radio, microwave, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma wavelengths.  

What have researchers found about BL Lacertae (BL Lac)?

Researchers found that the flare emanated from BL Lac had reached the maxima.

This was detected using the continuous observations made by an ensemble of eleven optical telescopes located across the world. One among them was the Himalayan Chandra Telescope located in Ladakh’s Hanle.