Chandra Release - June 24, 2009

Visual Description: Lyman Alpha Blobs

These are side-by-side visual representations of so-called Lyman Alpha Blobs. The first image shows the composite data from telescopes, while the second image depicts an artist’s illustration.  The composite data is colored in muddy yellows, red and blue. The data on the left looks like a smudged “S” shape, mostly in yellow-brown with a bright red-to-blue-to-white dot to the upper left curve of the “S”. The illustration features bright red-orange fiery looking material extending above and below a pink, brown and white spiral galaxy. The composite image on the left is one of the largest blobs observed in this study. Glowing hydrogen gas in the blob is shown by a Lyman-alpha optical image (colored in yellow) from the Subaru telescope. A galaxy located in the blob is visible in a broadband optical image (white) from the Hubble Space Telescope and an infrared image from the Spitzer Space Telescope (red). Finally, the Chandra X-ray Observatory image in blue shows evidence for a growing supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy. Radiation and outflows from this active black hole are powerful enough to light up and heat the gas in the blob. The artist's representation on the right shows what one of the galaxies inside a blob might look like if viewed at a relatively close distance. A two-sided outflow powered by the supermassive black hole buried inside the middle of the galaxy is shown in bright yellow, above and below the spiral arms of the galaxy. This outflow illuminates and heats gas surrounding the galaxy. Radiation from regions close to the black hole will also play a significant role in lighting up and heating the blob. Stars are forming at a rapid rate in this galaxy, and young stars are being destroyed in supernova explosions.