esahubble_heic0511b September 14th, 2005
Credit: NASA/ESA, ESO, Frédéric Courbin (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland) & Pierre Magain (Universite de Liège, Belgium)
This image shows the quasar HE0450-2958 after advanced image processing known as MCS-deconvolution. Thanks to this technique, it is possible to remove the brilliant glare from the quasar itself. The most interesting feature in the image is the nearly total absence of starlight from a host galaxy. The processing also reveal an interesting smaller cloud of gas about 2,500 light-years wide, which the scientist call "the blob", just next to the quasar. VLT observations show this cloud to be glowing because it is bathed in the intense radiation coming from the quasar. Most likely, it is the gas from this "blob" that feeds the super massive black hole, thereby allowing it to shine as a quasar.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0511b/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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