MUSE spies accreting giant structure around a quasar

This Picture of the Week shows a huge cloud of gas around the distant quasar SDSS J102009.99+104002.7, taken by the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory. Quasars are the luminous centres of active galaxies, which are kept active by material falling onto the central supermassive black hole. This quasar and its surrounding cloud are at a redshift larger than 3, meaning that they are seen as they were only about 2 billion years after the Big Bang.

The cloud of gas (or nebula) surrounding the quasar is known to astronomers as an Enormous Lyman-Alpha Nebula (ELAN). These types of nebula are massive structures of gas which formed in the early Universe, and they can help astronomers to learn how angular momentum — which explains the observed rotation of more recent galaxies — was created in the Universe. Thanks to the revolutionary MUSE instrument, it is now possible to observe these rare giant nebulae in greater detail than ever before.

This particular ELAN has a diameter of about a million light-years, and MUSE’s spectral imaging capabilities have allowed astronomers to measure the signature of inspiraling motions within the nebula — for the first time ever.

Link

Källa:

ESO/Arrigoni Battaia et al.

Om bilden

ID:potw1747a
Typ:Observation
Publiceringsdatum:20 november 2017 06:00
Storlek:614 x 656 px

Om objektet

Namn:SDSS J102009.99+104002.7
Typ:Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN : Quasar
Avstånd:z=3.164 (rödförskjutning)
Constellation:Leo
Kategori:Quasars and Black Holes

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Koordinater

Position (RA):10 20 9.39
Position (Dec):10° 40' 3.25"
Field of view:1.02 x 1.09 arcminutes
Orientering:Nord är 0.0° vänster om lodrätt

Färger och filter

BandVåglängdTeleskop
Synligt ljus
Ly-α
121 nmVery Large Telescope
MUSE
Synligt ljus
Continuum
540 nmVery Large Telescope
MUSE
Synligt ljus
Continuum
823 nmVery Large Telescope
MUSE