My degree is in science and sometimes do science illustration. Here I illustrated galaxy CQ 4479 for the University of Kansas press release. It was published just in the for Black Hole Week! I always love doing galaxy pictures, it really lets me play with the lighting and think through problem-solving. Here we are looking down the jets of the galaxy and at the expelled gases. This galaxy is an interacting galaxy similar to the Antennae galaxies, you can see a fainter nucleus at the bottom. This is the result of two galaxies colliding.
This galaxy offers us a rare glimpse at the brief period while cold gases that drive star formation are being expelled by heavy winds but still present.
https://news.ku.edu/2020/11/16/astronomers-find-puzzling-cold-quasar-forming-new-stars-spite-active-galactic-nucleus?fbclid=IwAR2M-JLAYBJbZp9J3lM2DJOE0AFSmpjvVlPwntu0Ga-0ueVjEmwL5QVtla4
From the release “The galaxy, dubbed CQ 4479, shows characteristics that normally don’t coexist: An X-ray luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) and a cold gas supply fueling high star formation rates.”
If you are interested in behind-the-scenes such as thumbnails and progress shots you can see some of the progress shots of this science illustration along with other pieces by becoming a patron on my patreon ^.^
You can also see my previous illustration of a cold quasar here!
You can also see this phenomenon covered in the media!
https://scitechdaily.com/cold-quasar-forming-new-stars-in-spite-of-active-galactic-nucleus-puzzles-astronomers/