Do Extremely Reddened Quasars Extinguish Star Formation?

New research by Frederick Hamann, and former School of Natural Sciences Members Nadia Zakamska, Donald Schneider, Jenny Greene, and Michael Strauss, describes the discovery of a unique new population of extremely red quasars. The findings were recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The extremely red quasars were selected for study because of their extreme color, but the analysis by Hamann and his fellow researchers reveal a number of peculiar properties consistent with a unique and possibly young evolutionary stage. In particular, they have an exceptionally high incidence of powerful quasar-driven outflows that could be involved in galaxy-wide blowouts of gas and dust.