NASA-International Space Station

A new surveillance of a far away object five billion light years from Earth may now help to explain the riddle. The object is a quasar, a powerful source of energy supposed to mark the location of an active giant black hole. Nothing that gets close enough to a black hole can get away its powerful gravity. However, objects swirling around the edge of a black hole can radiate vast amounts of energy. Radiation from the quasar was being emitted when the universe was little more than a third of its present age.

To their surprise, the astronomers found that unlike most quasars, this one was ''naked'' and not located at the centre of a galaxy. However, there was a companion galaxy close to it creating innovative stars at a frantic rate corresponding to about 350 suns per year. The galaxy was successfully ''under fire'' from jets of high energy particles and fast moving gas shooting out of the quasar, the scientists found.

The torrent of material was likely to be fuelling star formation in the galaxy, the scientists believe. In result, the quasar was building its own host galaxy. At a later stage the quasar was predictable to end up at the galaxy's centre.

''The two objects are bound to join in the future: the quasar is moving at a velocity of only a few tens of thousands of kilometers per hour with respect to the companion galaxy and their severance is only about 22,000 light-years,'' said lead scientist Dr David Elbaz, from the CEA research institute in Saclay, France.

''Although the quasar is still 'naked', it will ultimately be 'dressed' when it joins with its star-rich companion. It will then finally dwell inside a host galaxy similar to all other quasars.'' A related process may have led to the progress of other large galaxies with enormous black holes nestling within them, the scientists believe.