Data from Suzaku Telescope from 2005 to 2014.
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The uncertainty of science: In what is an amazingly honest press release from the Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN (IFJ-PAN) in Poland, researchers admit that after two decades of analysis of one particular active galaxy (PKS 2155-304) — dubbed a blazar because its energy and light is sent directly to us in a powerful beam — they only have more questions and no clear answers.

The present analysis covered measurements taken over a much longer period – almost two decades. The data, which complemented one another in terms of energy ranges, were obtained from the US satellite observatories: the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (in the optical, ultraviolet and Xray ranges) and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (in the gamma-ray range).

“The key conclusion from our analyses is that the currently most popular theoretical models, which assume that radiation is emitted within a single jet zone by a single population of electrons, can only describe the variability of our blazar over short time scales. However, something more complex is clearly happening in this object, which short observation campaigns are unable to capture,” says Dr. Wierzcholska.

In other words, to truly understand the nature of these galaxies and why they emit so much energy, it would require space telescopes in orbit covering the entire electromagnetic spectrum that can observe each one continuously for decades. Such technology doesn’t exist, and it won’t until we have a very large civilization in space. And even then it is not likely that enough telescopes would ever be built to do this research adequately.

Note too the researchers reliance on Gehrels-Swift. This underlines why NASA is gambling on the startup Katalyst to save it.

This press release is astonishing in that it outlines the mystery and gaps in our knowledge, rather than do what is done far too often, to claim a wild discovery that “might” or “could” be true, but is merely based on wild suppositions. Kudos to these researchers and the PR department at IFJ-PAN!