 |
|
Cosmic dust in farthest quasar clue to early star formation
April 02, 2003UK astronomers using the 15-m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii have discovered enormous quantities of cosmic dust in the most distant quasar yet observed. The quasar, called SDSS J1148+5251 is at a redshift (z) of 6.43, and is found in the direction of the constellation of Ursa Major. It is some 13 billion light years away, and we are seeing it when the universe was very young - only 900 million years after the Big Bang. Cosmic dust is made up from elements, such as carbon and silicon, that are only produced deep within stars, and released into space in large stellar explosions. So much dust has been found - equivalent to 100 million times the mass of the Sun - it means that many stars must have already formed and exploded during those first 900 million years since the Big Bang - just one fifteenth the total age of the universe and a short period of time astronomically speaking. The observations are being reported at the UK/Ireland National Astronomy Meeting in Dublin by Professor Ian Robson of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh.
The observations were made with the SCUBA camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii by a team of British astronomers in January 2003. Professor Robson, who made the observations, said "For this work, SCUBA is the most sensitive instrument in the world and the JCMT the best telescope in the world. Fortunately the weather during the run was in our favour and so this result was a fantastic achievement with a really surprising outcome, a very exciting night indeed".
Dr Kate Isaak of the Cavendish Laboratory Astrophysics Group at the University of Cambridge, and a member of the team, said "The very fact that we see such large quantities of dust at such early times in the lifetime of the universe is amazing. By pushing to higher redshifts, we will be able to gauge more accurately when the dust formed. It has to be sometime after the Big Bang, but the radiation that we see today from these objects was emitted not very long after the Big Bang."
The observations were made at wavelengths of 0.85 and 0.45 mm, in the submillimetre region of the spectrum. These are the precise wavelengths at which cold dust in space shines brightest and SCUBA has searched for dust in a wide variety of cosmic objects: its successes range from the detection of spectacular dust rings around nearby stars, heralding planetary formation, to the dust now seen in the most distant quasar in the universe.
Dr Robert Priddey from Imperial College, London, commenting on the importance of the detections at both wavelengths said, "The detection at two wavelengths may allow us to determine the temperature of the dust. I found that the dust in other quasars that I have studied was colder than -200 degrees C."
Dr Richard McMahon from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge said, "This quasar appears to be forming stars at a rate of 500-1000 solar masses per year, which is more than a 100 times faster than the Milky Way."
Everything now being learned, even the fact that this quasar exists so very early in the history of the universe, means that galaxies and stars formed much faster than previously thought at these very early times.
Royal Astronomical Society (RAS)
Quasar News and Current Quasar Events RSS'Cosmic ghost' discovered by volunteer astronomer
When Yale astrophysicist Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues at Oxford University enlisted public support in cataloguing galaxies, they never envisioned the strange object Hanny van Arkel found in archived images of the night sky.
Polarizing filter allows astronomers to see disks surrounding black holes
For the first time, a team of international researchers has found a way to view the accretion disks surrounding black holes and verify that their true electromagnetic spectra match what astronomers have long predicted they would be.
RIT Team Simulates First Merger of Three Black Holes on a Supercomputer
The same team of astrophysicists that cracked the computer code simulating two black holes crashing and merging together has now, for the first time, caused a three-black-hole collision.
Cosmic engines surprise XMM-Newton
XMM-Newton has been surprised by a rare type of galaxy, from which it has detected a higher number of X-rays than thought possible. The observation gives new insight into the powerful processes shaping galaxies during their formation and evolution.
New population of faint protogalaxies discovered
Astronomers have found a new population of faint protogalaxies by taking the most sensitive spectroscopic survey ever of a time when the universe was only 15% of its present age.
Discovering teenage galaxies
Staring for the equivalent of every night for two weeks at the same little patch of sky with ESO's Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has found the extremely faint light from teenage galaxies billions of light years away.
RIT Study Confirms Supermassive Black Holes Produce Powerful Galaxy-Shaping Winds
Supermassive black holes can produce powerful winds that shape a galaxy and determine their own growth, confirms a group of scientists from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Hubble spies shells of sparkling stars around quasar
New images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope - part of a research project led by UC Riverside's Gabriela Canalizo - have revealed the wild side of an elliptical galaxy, nearly two billion light-years away, that previously had been considered mild-mannered.
Galaxy 'Hunting' Made Easy
Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered in a single pass about a dozen otherwise invisible galaxies halfway across the Universe. The discovery, based on a technique that exploits a first-class instrument, represents a major breakthrough in the field of galaxy 'hunting'.
MU Physicist Says Testing Technique for Gravitomagnetic Field is Ineffective
Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity has fascinated physicists and generated debate about the origin of the universe and the structure of objects like black holes and complex stars called quasars.
More Quasar News Articles
 | Cosmological Enigmas: Pulsars, Quasars, and Other Deep-Space Questions by Mark Kidger The universe is big. Really big. And it gets bigger every day. In Cosmological Enigmas, Mark Kidger weaves together history, science, and science fiction to consider questions about the bigness of space and the strange objects that lie trembling at the edge of infinity. What are quasars, blazars, and gamma-ray bursters? Could we ever travel to the stars? Can we really expect aliens to contact us?... |
 | Seeing Red: Redshifts, Cosmology and Academic Science by Halton C. Arp Arp's new book is a frontal assault on the standard model of the universe, replete with anecdotes and illustrations, including 8 pages of colour plates. "Seeing Red" represents a senior scientist's personal account of the crisis in moderrn astronomy. Dr. Arp presents observations showing that extragalactic redshifts are not caused by an expanding universe. He crafts up an empirical picture of... |
 | Into the Bermuda Triangle by Gian Quasar Still unsolved, still baffling, still claiming new victims. Here are the untold stories. A pilot reports a strange haze enveloping his plane, then disappears; eleven hours after fuel starvation, as if calling from a void, he is heard 600 miles away. He requests permission to land, then vanishes forever. A freighter steaming over placid seas disappears without a trace. A pleasure yacht ghosts... |
 | Astrophysical Quantities This new edition of Allen's classic "Astrophysical Quantities" belongs on every astronomer's bookshelf. It has been thoroughly revised and updated by a team of internationally renowned team of astronomers and astrophysicists. Topics covered include: * General constants and units * Atoms, molecules, and spectra * Observational astronomy at all wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays, and neutrinos *... |
| Radio Astronomy by John Daniel Kraus RADIO ASTRONOMY is the classic text and reference book which has served a generation of the world's radio astronomers, now in a much enlarged, updated edition. "Authoritative, encyclopedic, presented clearly and elegantly", Sky and Telescope. "The standard textbook on radio astronomy used by professionals and amateurs alike", Radio Astronomy Magazine. "A useful, up-to-date, clear and... | |
 | The Bermuda Triangle (The Unexplained) by Aaron L. Rudolph |
| Music of the Spheres: The Material Universe from Atom to Quasar, Simply Explained; VOLUME I, The Macrocosm: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, Cosmology by Guy Murchie | |
| From Quarks to Quasars by Jespersen | |
| The Origins of Our Universe: A Study of the Origin and Evolution of the Contents of our Universe: The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Young People 1990 by Malcolm S. Longair | |
| Quasars, Redshifts, and Controversies by Halton Arp For twenty years, the author has contested the 'establishment' view of quasars as the most distant objects in the universe. In this book, Arp presents the original observations and fundamental data on quasars and galaxies, and explains why he has concluded that: far from being the most distant objects in the universe, quasars are associated in space with relatively nearby galaxies; quasars'... |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |