Astronomers have finally solved one the universe's most puzzling mysteries 

Our universe is filled with things that we don't understand. Chief among the mysteries of the cosmos has been quasars. Astronomers knew they existed but they've never understood why, at least until new discoveries earlier this year changed everything we knew about these interesting space puzzles.

Quasars have been puzzling astronomers ever since they were discovered in the night sky 60 years ago. but it's not like we didn't know anything about these powerful cosmic objects.

Quasars are some of the brightest and most powerful objects in our universe according to Salon’s Troy Farah and they can shine with a “glimmer as bright as a trillion stars.”

“Unfortunately, despite their importance and awe-inspiring destructive power, quasars are difficult to study due to their extreme distance and brightness,” Farah added. 

We know that quasars are powered by supermassive black holes and are only found at the centers of galaxies according to Farah. But we’ve never known what caused them, at least until now. 

A recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has answered one of the universe’s biggest mysteries, and it's all about how galaxies interact with each other. 

The science behind the findings from the research can be difficult to understand but it boils down to merging or colliding galaxies being the trigger needed to create the environment for a quasar. 

The researchers explained that the interaction between two galaxies moved enough gas into the center of supermassive black holes and that is what ultimately created a quasar.

Science Daily wrote in their analysis of the study that as a supermassive black hole consumes the gas around it, that gas ignites, creating the "characteristic quasar brilliance."

Essentially, all the gas flying around as two galaxies come together or interact to provide the fuel needed to ignite one of the brightest known phenomena in our universe, cool right?

“It’s exciting to observe these events and finally understand why they occur,” explained Dr. John Pierce in a press release about his study’s important scientific discovery. 

“Quasars are important to astrophysicists because, due to their brightness, they stand out at large distances and therefore act as beacons to the earliest epochs in the history of the Universe,” Dr. Pierce added.

Studying quasars isn’t just important for learning about our past, though. They also hold the key to understanding our future as well according to one of the study’s co-authors.

"Quasars are one of the most extreme phenomena in the Universe,” explained Dr. Clive Tadhunter of the University of Sheffield, “and what we see is likely to represent the future of our own Milky Way galaxy when it collides with the Andromeda galaxy.”

According to Science Daily, the researchers used the largest and most sensitive sample size of quasars ever imaged to look at 48 different quasar and 100 non-quasar galaxies. 

From their data, the researchers concluded that galaxies that had a quasar were three times more likely to be “interacting or colliding with other galaxies” Science Daily added. 

The first quasars were discovered by their radio signals in the late 1950s according to Wikipedia. By the 1960s, hundreds were recorded but their origins remained a mystery.