Collaborative Research: Accretion Revelations from Changing-Look Quasars

类星体是明亮但微小的光源。它们如此微小，很难理解它们是如何工作的。天文学家怀疑这种明亮是由气体涌入一个巨大的黑洞造成的。奇怪的是，一些罕见的类星体已经急剧变暗。这些是变相类星体（clq），它们提供了闸门如何关闭的线索。该团队将使用光学观测来发现更多的clq并研究它们的细节。高级团队成员将培训来自代表性不足群体的初级团队成员。该团队将把他们基于光的数据转换成声音，这样他们就可以与盲人或视障人士分享他们的研究。该团队将(1)对多历元SDSS光谱进行存档和定向搜索，以产生大量定义良好的新CLQ统计样本；(2)根据光度曲线中观察到的显著变化，选择新的CLQ候选体进行光谱跟踪；(3)研究至少80个CLQ样本的光谱和光度变化特性，以表征和理解这一现象。

Quasars are brilliant but tiny emitters of light. Being so tiny, it is hard to fathom how they work. Astronomers suspect the brilliance is caused by gas flooding toward a massive black hole. Curiously, a few, rare quasars have dramatically dimmed. These are the changing-look quasars (CLQs), and they offer clues about how the floodgates can close. The team will use optical observations to find more CLQs and study their details. Senior team members will train junior team members from underrepresented groups. The team will convert their light-based data to sound so that they can share their research with the blind or visually impaired.The team will (1) conduct archival and directed searches in multi-epoch SDSS optical spectra, to produce a large and well-defined statistical sample of new CLQs, (2) select new CLQ candidates for spectroscopic follow-up based on dramatic variability observed in their photometric light curves, and (3) investigate the spectroscopic and photometric variability properties of this sample of at least about 80 CLQs, to characterize and understand the phenomenon.