Ubiquitous giant Lyα nebulae around the brightest quasars at z ~ 3.5 revealed with MUSE
A blind MUSE survey finds a giant Lyα nebula around every one of 17 bright quasars at z ≈ 3.5.
What was found
- All 17 radio-quiet quasars at 3 < z < 4 show a giant Lyα nebula.
- The nebulae extend beyond roughly 100 physical kpc, reaching about 320 kpc in some cases.
- Their shapes differ, yet the circularly averaged surface brightness profiles look alike and fall steeply as a power law.
- The resemblance to the Slug Nebula suggests a common origin and a large reservoir of cool, dense gas within about 50 kpc of bright quasars, whatever the geometry of the emission.
This summary is written for a general audience. The paper has the full details.
Cite this paper
Borisova, E., et al. 2016, ApJ, 831, 39, doi:10.3847/0004-637X/831/1/39
@article{borisova2016,
author = {Borisova, Elena and others},
title = {{Ubiquitous giant Lyα nebulae around the brightest quasars at z ~ 3.5 revealed with MUSE}},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
year = {2016},
volume = {831},
pages = {39},
doi = {10.3847/0004-637X/831/1/39},
eprint = {1605.01422},
archivePrefix = {arXiv}
}