Chandra Scores A Double Bonus With A Distant Quasar

Chandra_113_1024

chandra_113 February 6th, 2002

Credit: NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska(CfA)/J.

Chandra's image of this highly luminous quasar shows an enormous X-ray jet that extends at least a million light years. The jet is likely due to the collision of a beam of high-energy electrons with microwave photons. The high-energy beam is thought to have been produced by explosive activity related to gas swirling around a supermassive black hole. The length of the jet and the observed bright knots of X-ray emission suggest that the explosive activity is long-lived but intermittent. The X-ray light from PKS 1127-145 passes through a galaxy 4 billion light years away, on its way to Earth. This allowed astronomers to estimate that the gas in the intervening galaxy contained a much lower concentration of oxygen relative to hydrogen gas than does our galaxy - about 5 times lower.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1127/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
PKS 1127-145

Distance

Universescale3
10,000,000,000 light years
Chandra_113_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 11h 30m 7.4s
DEC = -14° 49’ 23.5”
Orientation
North is 3.2° CCW
Field of View
0.9 x 0.9 arcminutes
Constellation
Crater

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Magenta Chandra (ACIS) X-ray (X-ray) 826.7 pm
Spectrum_xray1
Magenta
Chandra_113_1280
×
ID
113
Subject Category
Subject Name
PKS 1127-145
Credits
NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska(CfA)/J.
Release Date
2002-02-06
Lightyears
10,000,000,000
Redshift
1.187
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1127/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Chandra
Instrument
ACIS
Color Assignment
Magenta
Band
X-ray
Bandpass
X-ray
Central Wavelength
0.8267
Start Time
2000-05-28T15:14:35
Integration Time
30160
Dataset ID
866
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
172.5307517, -14.8231888
Reference Dimension
2199.0, 2199.0
Reference Pixel
1100.5, 1100.5
Scale
6.57559e-06, 6.5755904e-06
Rotation
3.24
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
WCS retrieved using CXCs PinpointWCS
Creator (Curator)
Chandra X-ray Observatory
URL
http://chandra.harvard.edu
Name
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Email
cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
Telephone
617.496.7941
Address
60 Garden St.
City
Cambridge
State/Province
MA
Postal Code
02138
Country
USA
Rights
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
Publisher
Chandra X-Ray Center
Publisher ID
chandra
Resource ID
1127_xray.tif
Metadata Date
2012-07-30T11:43:09-04:00
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×
Universescalefull
10,000,000,000 light years

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