Using VERITAS to search for Blazars

Professor Lucy Fortson is part of a collaboration which uses the VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) to search for blazars

Blazars are an active galaxy with large jets of matter beamed from the center of the galaxy towards Earth. The process which creates this type of radiation is ubiquitous but not yet understood. Until the VERITAS search there were only a handful of objects that had been identified as balzars. Thanks to more improvements in the way astronomical data is sorted, astrophysicists have identified over 40 objects emitting this type of radiation, such as supernova remnants, pulsars, starburst galaxies and active galactic nuclei.