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This is a selection of photos from a Hubble Space Telescope survey of 11 ultra-bright quasars that existed at the peak of the universe's star-formation era, which was 12 billion years ago. The quasars (powered by supermassive black holes) are so compact and bright they make a diffraction-spike pattern in the telescope's optics – an optical artifact typically only produced by bright nearby stars. Despite their brightness, the quasars are actually dimmed by dusty gas around them. The infrared capability of Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 was able to probe deeply into the material around the quasars.
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When the glare of the quasar is subtracted, researchers see evidence for collisions between galaxies. The collisions and mergers gave birth to the quasars by fueling the supermassive black hole at the core of the galaxies. The new images capture the dust-clearing transitional phase in the merger-driven quasar birth. These observations show that the brightest quasars in the universe live in merging galaxies.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and E. Glikman (Middlebury College, Vermont)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Description | Dust-Reddened Quasars |
| Distance | Redshifts: Between 1.7 and 2.3 |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Data were obtained from the HST proposals , PI: E. Glikman (Middlebury College) et al. The science team comprises:T E. Glikman (Middlebury College), B. Simmons (University of Oxford), M. Mailly (Middlebury College), K. Schawinski (Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich), C.M. Urry (Yale University), and M. Lacy (NRAO Charlottesville). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | September 2012 through June 2013 |
| Filters | F105W (Y), F125W (J), and F160W (H) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are composites of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F105W (Y) or F125W (J), Orange: F160W (H) |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
