Thomas and Lucy undertook the research, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, as a final-year project for their Physics degrees. 

The study revealed that although the supermassive black hole is responsible for high levels of radiation and powerful jets, this giant black hole is not as influential as many of its counterparts in other galaxies.

Dr Helen Russell led the study and supervised the students, she said: “This is an exciting result and it’s a fantastic achievement for two undergraduate students to co-author a published study.

“We have found that the quasar in our study appears to have relinquished much of the control imposed by more slowly growing black holes and the black hole’s appetite is not matched by its influence.” 

Take a look at our press release to find out more about their research and findings. You can see what Thomas and Lucy had to say during their interviews below.

How did you become interested in Astronomy?

Lucy: I’ve always been fascinated by questions like “how did we get here?” and “how do stars and galaxies come to be?”. My physics teacher in Sixth Form brought in a telescope for us to use and that was the first time I’d looked through a telescope. I found even observing the moon to be fascinating. It’s hard to pin point exactly when I got interested in astronomy, I suppose I always have been.

Thomas: I was in the scouts when I was young and very interested in starwatching, particularly while camping. I found this very historically important for direction finding and was very interested in understanding things currently not known. I eventually did the astronomy GCSE in my own personal time (not with school) and was the only one in my school to do so. For this I purchased a telescope and mapped lunar features (as well as the exam). I always found it to be the most exciting area of physics.

How do you feel about being a co-author for this research?

Lucy: Honestly – shocked but thrilled! I would never have imagined that my name would be on a paper this early in my career. I hope it can inspire other students to also take up astronomy.

Thomas: I’m ecstatic about my work being used in this way! It’s wonderful to be featured on an academic paper and it only makes me want to get more work done for further publications! It’s very rare to be featured as even many PhD students don't get their names properly published before finishing.

Were you surprised by the outcome of the research?

Lucy: I always found the research that [Thomas] and I conducted for our Masters project incredibly exciting, and I knew that we were making a valuable contribution to our field. We got to work with new, unpublished Chandra data and that was part of what drew me to the project. From the start [Helen] mentioned the possibility of writing a paper partially based on our project, though I never quite believed that would actually come true! We were extremely lucky in this way as it’s very rare that two students end up as co-authors on such a highly regarded paper and I will always be grateful to [Helen] for providing us with such an amazing project as well as the guidance she gave. I never expected the paper to receive the amount of publicity is it has and am completely overwhelmed with joy and pride because of it. I could not have asked for a better start to my academic career.

Thomas: Initially, we already knew that there’d be some results as we were working with brand new data of better quality than previous studies of this region of space. It was surprising to us how good the results were though, and we enjoyed the process more than expected as well! [Helen] was a fantastic supervisor and myself and Lucy were incredibly lucky to work with her!

What advice would you give to someone thinking of undertaking an Astronomy degree?

Lucy: My advice would be to go for it if you love astronomy. Whilst it will be hard, it is an incredibly rewarding experience. I learnt so many new skills like how to apply for time on telescopes, writing research proposals, coding - the list is so long! The best part is in your final year you will get the chance to do a research project that has the potential to make a new scientific contribution.

Thomas: I think you should be aware that it will involve a lot of data analysis and you should be flexible with new tools as there are many astronomy specific software and each telescope will have different observation requirements. A good mathematical and programming set of skills would be desirable. Don't be daunted though because as long as you put in the effort it will definitely pay off! Your hard work will be rewarded.

What are your career plans?

Lucy: My masters project inspired me to pursue PhD in Astronomy at The Open University on the subject of black hole jets. Long term, I would like to become a full-time researcher.

Thomas: I am currently doing a PhD in the University of Nottingham with Dr Neil Kemp funded by the Faculty of Science AI DTC of Nottingham. I am working on designing, building and testing components for computer chips (specifically memristors) which could potentially be used in machine learning. This is a switch in discipline away from astronomy, but physics is an extremely flexible degree with plenty of opportunities (and I keep up with my reading out of personal interest). After this I intend to go on to work in research and development in Industry (although I would be tempted by a position in the university as a lecturer if the opportunity arises).