News Release Archive: Cosmology
May 3, 2000 12:00 AM (EDT)
News Release Number: STScI-2000-18
Lost and Found: Hubble Finds Much of the Universe's Missing Hydrogen
Image: Quasar Beam Unveils Hidden Matter In Universe
STScI-PRC2000-18a
Artist's Concept
Screen-use options: These files are created for viewing on your monitor
Highest-quality download options: The best resolution available
ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
Astronomers detected vast filaments of invisible hydrogen by using the light of a distant quasar (core of active galaxy) to probe the dark space between the galaxies. The Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph found the spectral "fingerprints" of highly ionized intervening oxygen (which is a tracer of the hydrogen) superimposed on the quasar's light. Slicing across billions of light-years of space, the quasar's brilliant beam penetrated at least four separate filaments of the invisible hydrogen laced with the telltale oxygen. This filamentary structure is throughout the universe, all the way out to the distance of the quasar. For simplification, this graphic isolates the filamentary structure to a specific location along the line of sight to the quasar.
Image Type: Illustration
Illustration Credit: John Godfrey (STScI)
NEWS RELEASE IMAGES
All images from this news release:
To access available information and downloadable versions of images in this news release, click on any of the images below:
