Spectra of Record-Breaking Quasars

Spectra of the three new high-redshift quasars taken this spring with the 3.5-m telescope at Apache Point Observatory by a team led by Dr. Xiaohui Fan of the Institute for Advanced Study. The strong emission feature is the Lyman-alpha line of hydrogen, which normally occurs at a wavelength of 1216 Angstroms but has shifted to the red by approximately a factor of seven for these three objects.
Image credit: Donald Schneider and Xiaohui Fan, SDSS Collaboration

This image is also available as a PostScript file (43 KB).

Media Contacts