MUSE spies accreting giant structure around a quasar

Eso_potw1747a_1024

eso_potw1747a November 20th, 2017

Credit: ESO/Arrigoni Battaia et al.

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 Science paper on arXiv

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1747a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
SDSS J102009.99+104002.7
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Activity > AGN > Quasar
Eso_potw1747a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 10h 20m 9.4s
DEC = 10° 40’ 3.3”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
1.0 x 1.1 arcminutes
Constellation
Leo

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (MUSE) Optical (Continuum) 823.0 nm
Green VLT (MUSE) Optical (Continuum) 540.0 nm
Blue VLT (MUSE) Optical (Ly-α) 121.56 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Eso_potw1747a_1280
×
ID
potw1747a
Subject Category
D.5.3.2.1  
Subject Name
SDSS J102009.99+104002.7
Credits
ESO/Arrigoni Battaia et al.
Release Date
2017-11-20T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1747a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
MUSE, MUSE, MUSE
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
Continuum, Continuum, Ly-α
Central Wavelength
823, 540, 121.56
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
155.039107309, 10.66757
Reference Dimension
614.0, 656.0
Reference Pixel
289.787726371, 336.404674809
Scale
-2.76949695307e-05, 2.76949695307e-05
Rotation
0
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
potw1747a
Metadata Date
2023-10-11T09:20:06.267926
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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