COLLECTION NAME:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Record
Title:
Quasar in an Elliptical Galaxy
Explanation:
Where do quasars live? Quasars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.… ] are the brightest objects in the universe, so bright they can be seen from across the universe. Observations continue to show that most quasars [ http://cadcwww.dao.… ] are surrounded by a relatively faint nebulous patch. Astronomers are trying to identify the nature of these patches [ http://adsabs.harva… ]. The above false-color picture shows a central quasar embedded in an unusual elliptical galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.… ]. The galaxy is being gravitationally distorted [ http://antwrp.gsfc.… ] by a neighboring galaxy. Recent evidence indicates that most quasars live near the centers of large, elliptical galaxies - even those quasars [ http://www.student.… ] where no host galaxy could be found before. Quasars themselves are thought to result from matter falling toward supermassive black-holes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.… ].
Credit and Copyright:
J. S. Dunlop, R. J. McLure (U. Edinburgh [ http://www.roe.ac.u… ]), HST [ http://oposite.stsc… ], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/ ]
keyword:
QSOs
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_what:
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap980409
