Chandra's x-ray images of the same blobs, released in June 2009, add points of bright bluish light that seem to suddenly turn on within the massive gas clouds (above).

These lights are most likely the massive amounts of energy being released by supermassive black holes at the centers of growing galaxies, astronomers said.

"For ten years the secrets of the blobs had been buried from view, but now we've uncovered their power source," study leader Geach said in a statement. "Now we can settle some important arguments about what role they played in the original construction of galaxies and black holes."